Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/554

Rh 510 N I M N I M and 1674 the town was held by the French; they attacked it again in 1703 without success, got easy possession of it in 1794, and remained till 1814. NlMES, or NISMES, a city of France, chief town of the department of Gard, a bishop s see and seat of a court of appeal, lies 450 miles south-south-east of Paris by the Clermont-Ferrand Railway, and 80 miles north-west of Marseilles. The importance of the place is due to its central position between the Rhone, the Cevennes, and the sea, to the richness of the surrounding district, which before the ravages of the Phylloxera was clothed with vines, to its commerce and industry, and lastly to its archaeological treasures. No town in France can show so many remains of the Roman period. The amphitheatre is still in a good state of preservation. Occupied during the Middle Ages by a special quarter, with even a church of its own, it was cleared in 1809, and since then has been well kept in repair. It is built of large stones without mortar. In form it is elliptical, measuring 437^ by 332J feet externally ; the arena is 327 by 222 feet. The elevation (70 feet in all) consists of a ground story of 60 arches, an upper story of 60 arches, and an attic with consoles pierced with holes for supporting the velarium or awning. There Plan of Nimes. are four main gates, one at each of the cardinal points ; and no fewer than one hundred and twenty-four doorways gave exit from the tiers of the amphitheatre to the inner galleries. Originally designed for gladiatorial shows, or stag or boar hunts, the area has in recent times been sometimes used for bull-fights. The celebrated Maison Carree, a temple in the style of the Parthenon, but on a smaller scale, 82 feet long by 40 wide, is one of the finest monuments of the Roman period, and probably dates from the time of the Antonines. It contains a collection of antique sculptures and inscriptions. The temple of Diana, possibly a building connected with the neighbouring baths, is now overgrown with fig trees and climbing plants, but preserves a few fragments of statues and some rustic columns. The Tour Magne (Turris Magna), situated on the highest point in the city, 375 feet above sea-level, is still 92 feet in height, and was formerly a third higher. Admittedly the oldest monu ment of Nimes, it has been variously regarded as an old signal tower, a treasure-house, or the tomb of a Greek family settled in Gaul along with the earliest Phoenician colonists. Attached to the ramparts erected by Augustus, and turned into a fortress in the Middle Ages by the counts of Toulouse, the Tour Magne was restored about 1840. From the top there is a magnificent view extending from Canigou at the east end of the Pyrenees to Mont Ventoux, an outpost of the Alps; northward it takes in the vine- and olive-clad Garrigues and the Cevennes, eastward the valley of the Rhone and the Vaucluse and Alpine ranges, and southward the Mediterranean and the Aigues Mortes ramparts. Near the Tour Magne has been discovered the reservoir from which the water conveyed by the Pont du Gard was distributed throughout the city. Two gates, that of Augustus dating from 16 B.C., and the Porte de France, both semicircular arches, are preserved as historical monuments. Many of the finest buildings known to have existed have disappeared. When it still possessed its capitol, the temple of Augustus, the basilica of Plotina erected under Hadrian, the temple of Apollo, the hot baths, the theatre, the circus, constructed in the reign ot Nero, the Campus Martius, and the fortifications built by Augustus, Nimes must have been one of the richest of the Roman cities of Gaul. The cathedral (St Castor), occupy ing, it is believed, the site of the temple of Augustus, is partly Roman and partly Gothic in style. It contains the tombs of Flechier and Cardinal de Bernis. The church of St Paul, a modern Romanesque building, is adorned with frescos by Flandrin ; St Baudile (modern Gothic) is of note for the two stone spires which adorn its fagade ; and the court-house has a fine Corinthian colonnade and a pediment. Other buildings and in stitutions of note are the hospitals, the barracks, the old citadel (dating from 1687, and now used as a central house of detention), the picture gallery in the old lyce&quot;e, the public library (50,000 volumes), and the museum of natural history. The esplanade in front of the court-house has in the centre a handsome fountain with five marble statues by Pradier. The Fountain Gardens, in the north-west of the town, owe their peculiar character as well as their name to a spring of water which after heavy rains is copious enough not only to fill the ornamental basins (constructed in the 18th century with balustrades and statues on ancient foundations) but also to form a considerable stream. Neither the spring, however, nor the Vistre into which it discharges, is sufficient for the wants of the city, and water has consequently been brought from the Rhone, a distance of 17 miles. A beautiful avenue, the Cours Neuf, runs south for nearly a mile from the middle walk of the garden. At the close of the Middle Ages the industries of Nimes were raised to a state of great prosperity by a colony from Lombardy and Tuscany ; and, though the plague, the wars of religion, and the revocation of the edict of Nantes were all sufficiently disastrous in their effects, before the Revolution about half of the whole community, or from 10,000 to 12,000 persons, had come to be engaged in manufactures. Since then, however, the numbers of this class have hardly increased, while the population of the city has been doubled. The silk manufacture (reeling, spinning, weaving) no longer occupies all hands. Uphol stery materials (which have almost displaced shawls), carpets, handkerchiefs, tapes, braidings, hosiery, leather, clothes, and boots and shoes are also produced ; and, coal being worked in the neighbourhood, a number of found ries have been established. Nimes is, besides, one of the great southern markets for wine and brandy, silks and cocoons ; and there is a good trade in grain, groceries, and colonial wares. The population of the city in 1881 was 61,210; that of the commune was 62,394 in 1871, and 63,552 in 1881.