Nevers

Industrial city and administrative centre of the département of Nièvre in Burgundy, central France, at the meeting of the Loire and Nièvre rivers; population (1999) 40,900. It was the capital of the former province of Nivernais. Nevers has foundries, printing works, and electrical industries; it was formerly noted for the manufacture of chinaware.

Features Nevers was sacked by the Aedui in 52 BC while acting as a depot for Caesar. It has an 11th-century church, a cathedral dating partly from the 13th century, and a 15th-16th-century ducal palace, now the lawcourts. The body of St Bernadette, who saw visions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, lies here at the convent of St-Gildard. Bernadette Soubirous spent the rest of her life as a nun at St-Gildard after her visions at Lourdes. Her body is preserved in a glass case.