Mont des Cats is a small hill (alt. 164m) near the town of

Godewaersvelde Godewaersvelde (; French Flemish: ''Godsvelde'') is a commune in the Nord department in northern France, near the Belgian border. Heraldry Etymology The name of the commune means "Godafritha's Heath" or "Godefried Fields". British soldiers ...

, France. Located in the

Nord Nord, a word meaning "north" in several European languages, may refer to: Acronyms * National Organization for Rare Disorders, an American nonprofit organization * New Orleans Recreation Department, New Orleans, Louisiana, US Film and televisi ...

department, its Flemish name is Katsberg. The hill is seat of the Mont des Cats abbey, famous for its cheese produced by monks since 1890. Atop the hill rests an antenna that reaches a height of 364m and transmits both television and radio signals. It transmits FM radio signals at 500 W and has three ultra-high frequency 80 kW transmitters for TV broadcasting. The antenna provides radio and television for part of the Nord Pas de Calais digital television (DTT). The traditional feast of Saint-Hubert is held atop this hill on the third Sunday in October.

Origin of the name

The name has nothing to do with

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

s, but is derived from the name of a Germanic tribe known as

Chatti The Chatti (also Chatthi or Catti) were an ancient Germanic tribe whose homeland was near the upper Weser (''Visurgis''). They lived in central and northern Hesse and southern Lower Saxony, along the upper reaches of that river and in the val ...

(French: ''Chattes''; Dutch; ''Chatten''), living in the area after the fall of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

(5th century).History of Mont des Cats
on abbey website

Mont des Cats Abbey

A first community of the

Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony The Hospital Brothers of Saint Anthony, Order of Saint Anthony or Canons Regular of Saint Anthony of Vienne (''Canonici Regulares Sancti Antonii'', or CRSAnt), also Antonines or Antonites, were a Roman Catholic congregation founded in c. 1095, wi ...

was settled in 1650 and lasted until the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

which closed the monastery in 1792. In 1826, a new community of

Trappists The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance ( la, Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae, abbreviated as OCSO) and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a ...

(Reformed Cistercians) was funded, and this congregation has run the abbey ever since. A breakaway group of Trappist monks left Mont des Cats and settled in Westvleteren (Belgium).

World War One

During World War One the abbey was the scene of much action, particularly in 1914 during the Battle of Messines. On 12th October, 1914, the British 3rd Cavalry Bridge consisting of 4th Hussars, 5th Royal Irish Lancers and 16th Lancers attacked Mont des Cats, against Germans who were dug in on Mont des Cats and at Flêtre. They advanced up the slopes covered in hop-fields towards the monastery on the hilltop, with dismounted cavalry attacking from the west and mounted cavalry with a battery of horse artillery from the south. After some hard fighting, the monastery was wrested from German hands. During this engagement, Prince Maximilian Friedrich Wilhelm Georg von Hesse was mortally wounded and died in the monastery later that night. The 5th Lancers occupied the monastery that night along with some German wounded.

Mont des Cats cheese

Mont des Cats cheese has been produced by the monks since 1890 with the milk of local farms, in a small independent dairy. The production method are similar to those used for Port-salut. Affinage (maturing) takes a minimum of one month and during this period the cheese is washed in salted water and dyed with roucou, a reddish derivative from

annatto Annatto ( or ) is an orange-red condiment and food coloring derived from the seeds of the achiote tree ('' Bixa orellana''), native to tropical America. It is often used to impart a yellow or orange color to foods, but sometimes also for its f ...

seeds. The texture of the cheese is firm, uncooked, pressed and has small holes. The fat content is 50%. In

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

it is sometimes eaten as a breakfast cheese with coffee.

Cycling

The Mont des Cats is regularly included in cycling races in spring, such as

Gent–Wevelgem Gent–Wevelgem, officially Gent–Wevelgem – In Flanders Fields, is a road cycling race in Belgium, held annually since 1934. It is one of the classic races part of the Flemish Cycling Week, run in late March on the last Sunday before the To ...

and the

Four Days of Dunkirk The Four Days of Dunkirk (french: Quatre Jours de Dunkerque) is road bicycle race around the Nord-Pas de Calais region of northern France. Despite the name of the race, since the addition of an individual time trial in 1963, the race has been ...

. It featured once in the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

References