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Montcuq ( or ; Lengadocian: Montcuc) is a town and former commune in the Lot department in south-western France, lying outside Cahors. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Montcuq-en-Quercy-Blanc. Arrêté préfectoral 20 October 2015 Its residents are known as Montcuquois.
The town remains vibrant and a popular tourist destination, in part because its name, in standard French pronunciation, is homophones with mon cul, meaning my arse.
Montcuq still has a rich agricultural industry, and is known for its manufacture of and gaufres de Saint Daumes .
The town's name could derive from the Latin language Mont Circus Vallium, Mont Cuneus or montem cuci, meaning "cuckoo mountain".
A stronghold of the Catharism, Montcuq received its charter from Raymond VI in the 12th century. On 1 June 1212 Simon de Montfort took the castle after it had been deserted by its defenders, and gave it to Beaudouin, half-brother of the Count of Toulouse, an ally of the .
On 17 February 1214 Beaudouin marched on the Château de Lolmie, and after a short battle was arrested by Ratier de Castelnau, despite also being an ally of Montfort. Transported to Montcuq and deprived of food, he refused to order his soldiers to surrender. The garrison offered to surrender if their lives were spared, but they were soon massacred. Beaudouin was taken to Montauban and hanged at his brother's command.
After the Treaty of Meaux in 1229, the French king rebuilt the walls of both the town and castle. Only the keep of the castle remains nowadays.
The castle was retaken several times by the English during the 14th century, and in the 16th century was plundered by the .
Singer, actor and pop/rock musician Nino Ferrer lived in a bastide near Montcuq.
English writer, comedian and musician Neil Innes lived in Montcuq during the last years of his life, before dying there in December 2019.
In 2007, Hasbro, the company that manufactures the Monopoly game in France, had the idea to have the online community choose the cities that will appear on the new version of the game. Montcuq by far won the most votes (52879 votes), well ahead of Dunkirk with 30640 votes and Reims (20727 votes). Hasbro, however, decided it had "played long enough with web 2.0" and had "decided to maintain its editorial line and to develop products that fit a commercial demand", so decided to leave out Montcuq from the board game. Hasbro has nonetheless decided to issue an all-Montcuq edition.
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