FIGEAC, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Lot, 47 m. E.N.E. of Cahors on the Orleans railway. Pop. It stands on the right bank of the Cele, here crossed by an old bridge. Figeac grew up round an abbey founded by Pippin the Short in the 8th century, and throughout the middle ages it belonged to the monks. At the end of the 16th century the lordship was acquired by the duke of Sully, who sold it to Louis XIII. in 1622. The town is very rich in mediaeval houses, notably the Hotel de Balene, of the 14th century. Another house, dating from the 15th century, was the birthplace of the Egyptologist J. F. Champollion. The church of St. Sauveur, once belonging to the abbey of Figeac, is 12th cen tury restored. Notre-Dame du Puy belongs to the 12th and 13th centuries. The altar-screen is a fine example of carved woodwork of the end of the i 7th century. Of the four obelisks which used to mark the limits of the authority of the abbots of Figeac, those to the south and the west of the town remain. Figeac is the seat of a subprefect and has a communal college. Trade is in cattle, leather, wool, plums, chestnuts, walnuts and grain, and there are zinc mines in the neighbourhood.