Bonny-sur-Loire.—A village with a quaint church spire.
Moulins is a picturesque and attractive town on high ground above the River Allier. The first
Town Plan No. 29.—Moulins.
conspicuous feature reached on entering from the south is the Tour de l’Horloge, built in 1455, with moving figures in its curiously designed lantern. The narrow streets contain several good houses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and many of the brick fronts are ornamented with lozenges in darker brick. One house behind the clock-tower is noticeable for its beautiful little gazebo on the roof, with carved corbels and pilasters.
The nave and towers of the Cathedral are modern, having been built under the direction of Viollet le Duc. The spires add to the appearance of the town, as they stand out boldly from a hundred points of view. The beautiful choir was built by Agnes de Bourgogne in 1463, and it has been fortunate in preserving its fine fifteenth to sixteenth century glass. In the sacristy on the north side there is a fine triptych, showing, on the inside, the Virgin surrounded with angels, and Pierre II. de Bourbon and his wife, Anne of France (died 1522), a daughter of Louis XI. On the south side of the choir there is a beautiful spiral stone staircase, and near it, in a chapel, is a gruesome memorial representing the horrors of worms consuming a human body.
Adjoining the cathedral is all that now remains of the Castle of the Dukes of Bourbon, now unfortunately converted into a prison. From the river-side the walls tower up to a great height.
In the Lycée, formerly a convent of the Visitation, one is shown the sumptuous tomb of Carrara marble put up by his widow to the famous Henri, Duc de Montmorenci, who was executed at Toulouse in 1632 on a charge of treason against Louis XIII.
No. 23. MOULINS TO BRIARE.