ISSOIRE, a town of central France, capital of an arron dissement in the department of Puy-de-Dome, on the Couze, near its junction with the Allier, in the fertile plain of Limagne, 2 2 m. S.S.E. of Clermont-Ferrand on the P.L.M. railway to Nimes. Pop. (1931) 5,412. Issoire (Iciodurum), probably founded by the Arverni, was in Roman times famed for its schools. The Christian community established by Stremonius in the 3rd century was overthrown by the Vandals in the 5th. During the religious wars of the Reformation, Issoire suffered severely from the Prot estants in 1574, from the Roman Catholics in 1577 and in the contest between the Leaguers and Henry IV. The old part of the
town is distinct from the new part, which has fine promenades. The church of St. Paul or St. Austremoine on the site of an older chapel over the tomb of St. Austremoine (Stremonius) is an excellent example of the Auvergne Romanesque. Issoire is the seat of a sub-prefect, and of tribunals of first instance and of com merce. Straw hats, linen goods and galoches are made. Trade is in corn, fruit and wine.