Montjuzet, Public park in Clermont-Ferrand, France

Montjuzet is a 26-hectare park covering almost all of a volcanic butte at 485 metres that overlooks Clermont-Ferrand to the north-west. From its slopes, grassy with scattered trees, the view takes in a dense cityscape of reddish-brown roofs and light walls, with a dark church with two slender spires near the centre and a line of low hills on the horizon. The grounds hold a garden of Mediterranean and exotic trees and four beehives.

In the early 19th century the Napoleonic cadastre recorded this hill, rising to 486 m, as a patchwork of private agricultural and wine-growing plots. From 1962 expropriations began, ending in 1980; landscaping works ran from 1981, part of the park opened in 1983 or 1985, and the full 26 hectares opened to the public in 1989. During the Second World War the hill served as an observation post, first for the anti-aircraft machine-gun section of the 92nd Infantry Regiment from August 1939, then for the Luftwaffe in the winter of 1942-1943.

The park holds three contemporary sculptures: Boule erratique ou Fenêtre (1997) by Takashi Naraha, eight halved Tarn granite spheres stacked into a frame; Fontaine à induction chromatique (1996) by Carlos Cruz-Díez; and Racine by Jean Chauchard. A street on the hillside is named rue des fées, after the fées of Montjuzet, female druid servants in local legend.

The park covers the near-whole of a hill reaching 485 m, so the climb from the surrounding streets is steady; paths lead up to the summit viewpoint over the city and the hills beyond. Access is on foot from the Fontgiève side and by road on the hill's flanks.

The hill's name comes from the Occitan Mont-Jusèu; 18th- and 19th-century authors instead linked it to the Latin Mons-Jovis, Mount of Jupiter, and suggested a temple to the god once stood on the summit, though no trace or vestige survives. A street on the slope is still called rue des fées.