Mussidan (French pronunciation: [mysidɑ̃]; Occitan: Moissida) is a commune in the Dordogne departmentinNouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. Mussidan station has rail connections to Bordeaux, Périgueux, Brive-la-Gaillarde and Limoges.
Mussidan
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Crempse River
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Coat of arms | |
Location of Mussidan  | |
  Mussidan Show map of France  Mussidan Show map of Nouvelle-Aquitaine | |
| Coordinates: 45°02′09″N 0°21′59″E / 45.0358°N 0.3664°E / 45.0358; 0.3664 | |
| Country | France |
| Region | Nouvelle-Aquitaine |
| Department | Dordogne |
| Arrondissement | Périgueux |
| Canton | Vallée de l'Isle |
| Government | |
| • Mayor (2020–2026) | Stéphane Triquart[1] |
| Area
1
| 3.85 km2 (1.49 sq mi) |
| Population
(2021)[2]
| 2,776 |
| • Density | 720/km2 (1,900/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| INSEE/Postal code |
24299 /24400
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| Elevation | 42–106 m (138–348 ft) (avg. 50 m or 160 ft) |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
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| Source: EHESS[3] and INSEE (1968-2017)[4] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
On 16 January 1944, 35 hostages were arrested by the Germans for acts of resistance. They were deported to German work camps.[5]
On 11 June 1944 Francs-Tireurs et Partisans[6] destroyed a German armoured train at Mussidan station. During the fight, eight guerrillas and the train guard were killed. At the same time a convoy of the 11th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht arrived from Bordeaux. The guerrillas were obliged to withdraw. As a reprisal, a detachment of the Gestapo from Périgueux led by Second Lieutenant Michaël Hambrecht, reinforced by a platoon led by Alexandre Villaplane, head of one of the five sections of the North African Brigade and former captain of the France football team at the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay, 350 men over the age of sixteen from the city and its surroundings were arrested. The village was plundered by the North Africans.[7] In the evening, 47 civilians were shot near the town hall; five others were massacred in the street, including Raoul Grassin, the mayor of the town, and a councillor. Eight boys were under 18. Only two people survived despite their serious injuries. The Mussidan massacre constitutes the largest massacre of civilians committed in the Dordogne during the Second World War, the tenth largest in France. 115 inhabitants were deported.[5]
These sufferings earned Mussidan the award of the 1939-1945 war cross on 11 November 1948, a distinction also awarded to eighteen other municipalities in the Dordogne.[8]
It is twinned with:
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