BOURGES

bourges, a city of central france, chief town of the department of cher, 144 m. s. of paris on the orleans railway between vierzon and nevers. pop. (1906) town, 34,581; commune, 44,133. bourges is built amidst flat and marshy country on an eminence limited on three sides by the waters of the canal of berry, the yevre, the auron, and other smaller streams with which they unite at this point. the older part of the town with its narrow streets and old houses forms a centre, to the south and east of which lie important engineering suburbs. flourishing nurseries and market-gardens are situated in the marshy ground to the north and north-east. bourges preserves portions of the roman ramparts of the 4th century, which are for the most part built into the houses of the old quarter. they measure considerably less in circumference than the fortifications of the 13th century, remains of which in the shape of ruined walls and towers are still to be seen. the summit of the rise on which the city is built is crowned by the cathedral of st etienne, one of the most important in france. begun at the end of the 12th century, it was not completed till the 16th century, to which period belong the northernmost of the two unfinished towers flanking the facade and two of its five elaborately sculptured portals. the interior, which has double aisles, the inner aisles of remarkable height, and no transepts, contains, among many other works of art, magnificent stained glass of the 13th century. beneath the choir there is a crypt of romanesque construction, where traces of the roman fosses are to be found; the two lateral portals are also survivals of a romanesque church. the jardin de l'archeveche, a pleasant terrace-garden, adjoins the choir of the cathedral. bourges has many fine old houses. the hotel lallemant and the hotel cujas (now occupied by the museum) are of the renaissance period. the hotel de jacques coeur, named after the treasurer of charles vii. and now used as the law-court, is of still greater interest, though it has been doubted whether jacques coeur himself inhabited it. the mansion is in the renaissance style, but two towers of the roman fortifications were utilized in the construction of the south-western facade (see