Niort

Niort, the capital of the French department of Deux-Sèvres, pleasantly situated on the navigable Sèvre Niortaise, 43 miles NE. of La Rochelle and 109 SW. of Tours. An important railway junction, it has an old castle, a hôtel-de-ville (1530), a fine public garden, and the 16th-century church of Notre Dame, with a spire 246 feet high. The dressing of leather and the manufacture of gloves are the leading industries. Pop. (1872) 20,022; (1891) 23,225. Niort in the 14th century was held for eighteen years by the English. It was the birthplace of Madame de Maintenon. See Favre's Histoire de Niort (1880).