The name of the commune derives either from the
Bituriges, the name of the original inhabitants, or from the
Germanic word
Burg (French:
bourg; Spanish:
burgo; English, others:
burgh,
berg, or
borough), for "hill" or "village". The
Celts called it
Avaricon;
Latin-speakers:
Avaricum. In the fourth century BC, as in the time of
Caesar, the area around it was the center of a Gallic (Celtic) confederacy. In 52 BC, the sixth year of the
Gallic Wars, while the
Gauls implemented a
scorched-earth policy to try to deny Caesar's forces supplies, the inhabitants of Avaricum convinced the council not to have their town burned. It was temporarily spared due to its good defences provided by the surrounding marshes, by a river that nearly encircled it, and by a strong southern wall. Julius Caesar's forces, nevertheless, captured and destroyed the town, killing all but 800 of its inhabitants. Rome reconstructed Avaricum as a Roman town, with a monumental gate,
aqueducts,
thermae and an amphitheatre; it reached a greater size than it would attain during the Middle Ages. The massive walls surrounding the late-Roman town, enclosing 40 hectares, were built in part with stone re-used from earlier public buildings. The third-century AD
Saint Ursinus, also known as Saint Ursin, is considered the first bishop of the town. Bourges functions as the seat of an
archbishopric. During the 8th century Bourges lay on the northern fringes of the
Duchy of Aquitaine and was therefore the first town to come under Frankish attacks when the
Franks crossed the Loire. The Frankish
Charles Martel captured the town in 731, but Duke
Odo the Great of Aquitaine immediately re-took it. It remained under the rule of counts who pledged allegiance to the Aquitanian dukes up to the destructive
siege by the Frankish King
Pepin the Short in 762, when
Basque troops are found defending the town along with its count. During the
Middle Ages, Bourges served as the capital of the
Viscounty of Bourges until 1101. In the fourteenth century, it became the capital of the
Duchy of Berry (established in 1360). The future king of France,
Charles VII (), sought refuge there in the 1420s during the
Hundred Years' War. His son,
Louis XI, was born there in 1423. In 1438, Charles VII decreed the
Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges. During this period, Bourges was a major centre of
alchemy. In 1487, a third of Bourges was destroyed by fire, after which the economic decline of the city started. The
Gothic Cathedral of Saint Étienne, begun at the end of the twelfth century, ranks as a
World Heritage Site. It is one of the earliest examples of the
High Gothic style of the thirteenth century. Bourges has a long tradition of art and history. Apart from the cathedral, other sites of importance include the 15th-century
Palais Jacques Cœur and a sixty-five-hectare district of half-timbered houses and fine
town-houses. Bourges became an important center of artillery production from the 1860s, when Napoleon III decided to relocate the École de pyrotechnie militaire, at the time located in Metz, far away from the Prussian border. ==Population==