BOURGES, libTrzh (Lat. Bituriges, a tribe of Gaul). The ancient capital of Berry, now of the Department of the Cher. France. the seat of an archbishopric. and a military arsenal, situ ated in the midst of a fertile plain, at the con fluence of the Auron and the Yevre, 123 miles south of Paris (Map: France, .J 4). nigh tow ers still mark points on the ramparts which sur rounded the old town. Shady boulevards now take the place of the dismantled walls. The old town is made up of crooked streets and quain't houses; it stands in the heart of the new town. Its most conspicuous building is the noble cathedral of Saint Etienne. with its superb flying buttresses, its five western portals, lead ing to the five naves of the interior, which is lighted by stained-glass of unique beauty. This church was begun in the Thirteenth Century and completed in the Sixteenth Century. The House
of Jacques Coeur, the banished silversmith of Charles VIT., is the next most interesting build ing, and is now used as the Palais de Justice. Bourges is a centre of trade in wine, grain. cloth, cattle, hemp. and mill-stones. it has iron foundries, tan-yards, and cloth factories. Popu lation, in 1896, 43.5S7. Bourgos was the capital of the Gallic Bituriges, and the Roman A vari cum, after its capture by Julius Cesar in 52 B.C. It was successively taken by the Visigoths, under Eurie, by Clovis. Pepin the Short, and the North men. When Orleans was occupied by the Eng lish, Charles VII. made it his capital. Its uni versity, at which Calvin, Amyot. and Theodore de nem studied. was abolished in the Revolution. It was the birthplace of the astute Louis XL, the eloquent Bourdaloue, and the famous Jacques Cmu r.