AURILLAC, central France, capital of the department of Cantal, i4om. N.N.E. of Toulouse, on the Orleans railway. Pop. 14,86o. On the right bank of the Jordanne, it began with the 9th century abbey of St. Geraud. The Gothic abbey church was rebuilt in the 17th century. The nth th century castle stands on Roc Castanet. The abbey was a famous seat of medi aeval learning and this tradition was continued by a ( 7th cen tury) college, now a museum and library. The chief manufactures are wooden shoes and umbrellas; and there is trade in cheese and in the cattle, horses, and mules reared in the neighbourhood. Aurillac is the seat of a prefect, and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce and a chamber of commerce.