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MONTAUBAN today is a prosperous middle-sized provincial city, capital of the largely agricultural departement of Tarn-et-Garonne. It lies on the banks of the River Tarn, 53km from Toulouse, close to its junction with the Aveyron and their joint confluence with the Garonne, where the wide alluvial plain of the three rivers stretches boringly for miles around. But this is where the lines of communication run, and Montauban lies, conveniently, on the southwest Bordeaux-Toulouse autoroute and train line. Its origins go back to 1144 when the count of Toulouse decided to create a bastide here as a bulwark against English and French royal power. In fact, it is generally regarded as the first bastide , the model for those rationally laid-out medieval new towns, and that plan is still clearly evident in the beautiful town centre. Montauban has enjoyed various periods of great prosperity, as one can guess from the proliferation of fine town houses. The first followed the suppression of the Cathar heresy and the final submission of the counts of Toulouse in 1229 and was greatly enhanced by the building of the Pont-Vieux in 1335, making it the best crossing-point on the Tarn for miles around. The Hundred Years War did its share of damage, as did Montauban's opting for the Protestant cause in the Wars of Religion, but by the time of the Revolution it had become once more one of the richest cities in the southwest, particularly successful in the manufacture of cloth
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