Bourges
[key], city, capital of Cher dept., central France. It is a transportation
center with foundries, arsenals, breweries, printing plants, and
aeronautical and food industries. Known as Avaricum, Bourges was the Roman
capital of Aquitania N of the Garonne River (see Gaul). It early became an archiepiscopal
see and the capital of Berry. Charles VII
resided there while most of France was in English hands. In 1438 he
promulgated the pragmatic
sanction of bourges, which was revoked in 1461 by his son
Louis XI, who was born in Bourges. Louis XI founded (1463) the Univ. of
Bourges, where Jacques Cujas later taught; it was abolished in the French
Revolution. The Cathedral of St. Etienne (13th cent.), one of the glories of
French Gothic, is remarkable in that it has no transept. Jacques
Cœur, whose splendid house still stands, and Louis Bourdaloue were
born in Bourges.
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