BORDEAUX, bOr'do', France, capital of the department of Gironde, is situated on the left bank of the Garonne, about 70 miles from the sea and 284 southwest of Paris. It is built in a crescent form round a bend of the river, which is lined with fine quays for more than three miles and is crossed by a magnificent stone bridge of 17 arches, finished in 1821 at a cost of $1,200,000. There is another bridge, a fine iron structure, for the railway from Paris. Bordeaux consists of an old and a new town, the boundary between them being formed by a wide and handsome street which, com mencing at the quay near the centre of the crescent, stretches across the city from east to west. The objects chiefly deserving of notice in the old town are the arch called the Porte de Bourgogne at the extremity of the bridge, forming the principal entrance to the town; the cathedral, a fine Gothic edifice built at different periods; Saint Michael's Church, with a lofty detached tower and a superb front of florid Gothic; the church of Saint Croix, a specimen of gorgeous Romanesque; the bourse or ex change; the custom-house; the Hotel de Ville, once the residence of the archbishops of Bor deaux, and the Palais de Justice. The new town is not so rich in public buildings. The most conspicuous arc the library (200,000 vol umes and 1,563 manuscripts, including one of Montaigne's (Essays'), the museum and the the atre, a Grecian structure, regarded as the hand somest edifice in Bordeaux. Among the benefi cent establishments the first place is due to the grand hospital or infirmary, which occupies the highest site in the town and is admirably arranged. Few cities are so well supplied with extensive and finely-planted promenades. Bor deaux is the seat of a court of appeal, of courts of the first instance and of commerce, and has an academy of science, literature and art; a preparatory school of medicine and pharmacy; a lyceum; a normal school for female teachers; a school of hydrography and navigation; a school of painting and design; a botanic gar den, an observatory, various literary and scien tific associations and a branch of the Bank of France. There are consuls resident here from all the states of Europe and America. The position of Bordeaux gives it admirable facil ities for trade and enables it to rank next after Marseilles and Havre in respect of the tonnage employed. Large vessels can sail up to the
town, which by railway, river and canal com municates with the Mediterranean, with Spain and with the manufacturing centres of France. The chief exports are wine and brandy; drugs, dyes, bottles and fruits are also largely ex ported. Sugar and other colonial produce and wood are the chief imports. Ship-building is the chief branch of industry and there are also sugar refineries, woolen and cotton mills, pot teries, soap works, distilleries, cooperages and rope factories. The famed Bordeaux wines have a world-wide reputation and are exported in immense quantities. The best known are Chiteau-Lafitte, Château-Latour, Haut-Brion, Barsac, Graves, Sauterne and Langon.
Bordeaux is the Burdigala of the Romans. In the 5th century it was in possession of the Goths, and it was pillaged and burned by the Normans. By the marriage of Eleonor, daugh ter of the last Duke of Aquitaine, to Louis VII, it fell into the hands of France. But in 1152 the Princess was repudiated by her husband and married to Henry of Anjou, who ascended the throne of England in 1154, as Henry II, and transferred Bordeaux to that crown. After the battle of Poitiers, Edward the Black Prince, carried John, King of France, prisoner to Bor deaux, where he resided 11 years. Under Charles VII, in 1451, it was restored again to France. In 1548 the citizens rebelled on account of a tax on salt, and the governor, De Morems, was put to death, for which the Constable of Montmorency inflicted a severe punishment on the city. During the Revolution it was devas tated, as the rendezvous of the Girondists, by the Terrorists, almost as completely as Lyons and Marseilles. The oppressiveness of the con tinental system to the trade of Bordeaux made the inhabitants disaffected to the government of Napoleon, so that they were the first to declare for the house of Bourbon, 12 March 1814. In 1870 Bordeaux was the seat of the government of National Defense and in the following year the National Assembly met there for the first time. It is the birthplace of Rosa Bonheur. The Roman poet, Ausonius, was a native of Bordeaux. Montaigne and Montesquieu were born in the neighboring country, and the latter lies buried there in the church of Saint Ber nard. Pop. about 265,000.