BOURGES, chief towns of the department of Cher, central France, 144m. S. of Paris on the Orleans railway between Vierzon and Nevers. Pop. 36,646. Bourges is built in marshy country on a hillock cut off on three sides by the Canal of Berry, the Yevre, the Auron and smaller streams. The old town with its narrow streets forms a centre, to the south and east of which lie the industrial suburbs. Bourges occupies the site of the Avaricum, of the Bituriges, mentioned by Caesar as an impor tant settlement. In 52 B.C., it was completely destroyed, but under Augustus it was made the capital of Aquitania Prima. About A.D. 25o it became the seat of a bishop, the first occupant of the see being Ursinus. It was in the hands of the Visigoths from 475 to 507. In the middle ages it was the capital of Berry. In the 15th century it became the residence of Charles VII., "king of Bourges." In 1463 a university was founded in the city by Louis XI., which was for centuries one of the most famous in France for jurisprudence, but it has long ceased to exist. On many occasions Bourges was the seat of ecclesiastical councils as in 1438, when the Pragmatic Sanction of the Gallican Church was established, and in 1528, when Lutheran doctrines were con demned. Bourges preserves portions of the Roman ramparts, and of fortifications of the 13th century. The summit of the rise on which the city is built is crowned by the cathedral of St. Etienne, one of the most important Gothic churches in France. Begun in the 12th century it was completed in the 16th, to which period belong the northernmost of the two unfinished towers flanking the façade and two of its five elaborately sculptured portals. The interior has double aisles--the inner aisles of re markable height—and no transepts, and contains among many other works of art, magnificent stained glass of the 13th century. Beneath the choir there is a partially Romanesque crypt with traces of Roman fosses; the two lateral portals are also survivals of a Romanesque church. The hotel Lallemant and the hotel Cujas (now occupied by the museum) are of the Romanesque period. The hotel de Jacques Coeur, the famous merchant, is now the law-court. It is in the Renaissance style, but two towers of the Roman fortifications were utilized in the construction of the south-west façade. The industrial activity of Bourges depends primarily on its ammunition works and on its being a military centre. The suburb of Mazieres has large iron and engineering works, and there are manufactories of anvils, edge-tools, biscuits, woollen goods, oil-cloth, boots and shoes, fertilizers, brick and tile works, distilleries, tanneries, saw-mills and dye-works. The town has a port on the canal of Berry, and does a considerable trade in grain, wine, vegetables, hemp and fruit. Market gardening on the marshy soils of the neighbourhood is also important. Bourges is the seat of an archbishopric, a court of appeal, a court of assizes and a prefect. It has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators and a chamber of com merce.