La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime, Poitou-Charentes, France
1895 - La Rochelle

La Rochelle, là ro'shëll', a fortified seaport town of France, capital of the department of Charente-Inférieure, on the Atlantic, nearly midway between Nantes and Bordeaux. It is 295 miles by rail S.W. of Paris. Lat. of tower, 40° 9 24" N.; lon. 1°9' 16" W. Pop. 23,924. It is entered by seven gates; the streets are mostly bordered by arcades. The principal edifices are the cathedral, town hall, ex change, courts of justice, hospital, arsenal, docks, and a good bathing-establishment. An inner harbor opens from an outer port, capable of receiving vessels of from 400 to 500 tons; the roadstead is protected by the islands of Ré and Oléron. La Rochelle is a bishop's see, and the capital of a military division. It has a diocesan seminary, school of navigation, a public library of 25,000 volumes, a botanic garden, a cabinet of natural history, manufactures of glass, earthenware, and cotton twist, sugar-refineries, building docks, and an extensive trade in wines, brandies, and colonial produce. In the religious wars it was long a strong hold of the Protestants; but it was finally taken by Louis XIII. in 1628.

Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World Containing Notices of Over One Hundred and Twenty-five Thousand Places ... Joseph Thomas January 1, 1895 J.B. Lippincott

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