e (see
HOUSE, Plate II. figs. 7 and 8). Its wings surround a courtyard into
which three staircase turrets project; one of these leads to a chapel,
the ceiling of which is decorated by fine frescoes.

Bourges is the seat of an archbishopric, a court of appeal, a court of
assizes and a prefect; and is the headquarters of the VIII. army corps.
It has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of
trade-arbitrators, and a chamber of commerce, and a branch of the Bank
of France. Its educational institutions include an ecclesiastical
seminary, a lycee for boys, and a college for girls, training colleges,
and a school of industrial art. The industrial activity of Bourges
depends primarily on its gunpowder and ammunition factories, its
cannon-foundry and gun-carriage works. These all belong to the
government, and, together with huge magazines, a school of pyrotechnics,
and an artillery school, lie in the east of the town. The suburb of
Mazieres has large iron and engineering works, and there are
manufactories of anvils, edge-tools, biscuits, woollen goods, oil-cloth,
boots and shoes, fertilizers, brick and tile works, breweries,
distilleries, tanneries, saw-mills and dye-works. The town has a port on
the canal of Berry, and does a considerable trade in grain, wine,
vegetables, hemp and fruit.

Bourges occupies the site of the Gallic town of _Avaricum_, capital of
the Bituriges, mentioned by Caesar as one of the most important of all
Gaul. In 52 B.C., during the war with Vercingetorix, it was completely
destroyed by the Roman conqueror, but under Augustus it rose again into
importance, and was made the capital of Aquitania Prima. About A.D. 250
it became the seat of a bishop, the first occupant of the see being
Ursinus. Captured by the Visigoths about 475, it continued in their
possession till about 507. In the middle ages it was the capital of
Berry. During the English occupation of France in the 15th century it
became the residence of Charles VII., who thus acquired the popular
title of "king of Bourges." In 1463 a university was founded in the city
by Louis XI., which continued for centuries to be one of the most famous
in France, especially in the department of jurisprudence. On many
occasions Bourges was the seat of ecclesiastical councils--the most
important being the council of 1438, in which the Pragmatic Sanction of
the Gallican church was established, and that of 1528, in which the
Lutheran doctrines were co