CAHORS, a city of south-western France, capital of the department of Lot, Tom. N. of Toulouse, on the railway to Limoges. Pop. (1931), 10,671. It stands on a rocky peninsula encircled by the river Lot, and is noteworthy alike for its situa tion, its ancient buildings and its fine old bridge. Before the Roman conquest, Cahors, which grew up near the sacred fountain of Divona (now known as the Fontaine des Chartreux, which pro vides the town with water), was the capital of the Cadurci. Under the Romans it was famous for its linen cloth. Cahors appears to have had a bishop from the third century. After the fall of the empire it was occupied by the Visigoths and fell later to the Saracens. In the middle ages the town was the capital of Quercy, and its territory until after the Albigensian Crusade was a fief of the counts of Toulouse. The seignorial rights, including that of coining money, belonged to the bishops. In the 13th century Cahors became a financial centre, owing its importance to a colony of Lombard bankers, and the name cahorsin came to signify "banker" or "usurer." Its constant opposition to the bishops drove them, in 1316, to come to an arrangement with the French king, by which the administration of the town was placed almost en tirely in the hands of royal officers, king and bishop being co seigneurs. This arrangement survived till the Revolution. In 1331 Pope John XXII., a native of Cahors, founded there a uni versity, which flourished till 1751, when it was united to its rival, the University of Toulouse. In the 16th century it was a Catholic stronghold and rose against Henry of Navarre who took it by as sault in 1580. On his accession Henry IV. punished the town by depriving it of its privileges as a wine-market ; the loss of these was the chief cause of its decline.
Cahors is divided into two portions by the Boulevard Gambetta, which runs from the Pont Louis Philippe on the south to the wall of the 14th and 15th centuries enclosing the town on the north. To the east lies the old town, with its dark narrow streets and closely-packed houses ; west of the boulevard the new quarter, with spacious squares, stretches to the bank of the river. The Pont Valentre to the west of the town, is the finest mediaeval fortified bridge in France. It dates from 1308 (restored in the 19th cen tury), and is defended at either end by high machicolated towers, another tower, less elaborate, surmounting the centre pier. The cathedral of St. Etienne (1119, but altered between 1285 and 150o) stands in the heart of the old town. Its most remarkable features are the roof of the aisle-less nave, consisting of two round cupolas, and the finely sculptured north portal (c. 119o). Adjoining the church are remains of a cloister Near the cathedral is St. Urcisse, dating from the 12th and 13th centuries, which preserves Romanesque capitals recarved in the 14th century. Of the palace of Pope John XXII., the great Avi gnon pope (early 14th century), only a square tower still stands; the rest is in ruins, or unfinished. The residence of the seneschals of Quercy, mainly 14th century, known as the Chateau du Roi, also remains. The chief of the many old houses of Cahors, is the Maison d'Henri IV. century) . The Porte de Diane is a large archway of the Roman period, probably the entrance to the baths. Cahors is the seat of a bishopric, a prefect and a court of assizes. It has tribunals of first instance and of commerce. Tanning, dis tilling, market-gardening and the preparation of pate de foie gras and other delicacies are carried on. Wine, nuts, truffles and plums are leading articles of commerce.