Moulins

Administrative centre of the département of Allier in the Auvergne region of central France, situated on the River Allier; population (1999) 21,900. It is a market town for the surrounding agricultural region, and its main industries are cutlery, textiles, glass, leather, electrical products, and food processing. Moulins was capital of the old province of Bourbonnais from 1368 to 1527.

Its many old buildings include the remains of a Bourbon castle and an unusual Gothic cathedral. Villars (1653–1734), a French marshal under Louis XIV, and the Duke of Berwick (1670–1734), the illegitimate son of James II of England, were both born here.