ALBI  , a

city of south-western France, capital of the department of Tarn, 48 m . N . E. of Toulouse, on - branch line of the Southern railway . Pop . (1906) 14,956 . Albi occupies a commanding position on the left bank of the Tarn; it is united to its suburb of La Madeleine on the right bank by a medieval and a modern bridge . The old town forms a nucleus of narrow, winding streets surrounded by boulevards, beyond which lie modern quarters with regular thoroughfares and public gardens . The cathedral of Sainte Cecile, a fine fortress-church in the Gothic style, begun in 1277, finished in 1512, rises high above the rest of the town . The exterior, flanked at the western end by a lofty tower and pierced by high, narrow windows; is devoid of ornament . Its general plainness contrasts with the elaborate carving of the stone canopy which shelters the southern portal . In the interior, which is without transepts or aisles, the rood-screen and the -choir-enclosure, which date from about 1500, are masterpieces of delicate sculpture; the 'vaulting and the walls are covered with paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries . The archbishop's palace to the north-east of the cathedral is a fortified building of the 14th century .

St Salvi, the

chief of the other churches of Albi, belongs to the 13th and 15th centuries . A statue of the sailor La Perouse (1741–1788) stands in the square named after him . Albi is the seat of an archbishop, a prefect and a court of assizes . It has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a chamber of commerce, a lyc&e and training colleges . The industrial establishments of the town include dye-works, distilleries, tanneries, glass-works and important flour-mills . It is also a centre for hat-making, and produces cloth-fabrics, lace, umbrellas, casks, chairs, wooden shoes, candles and pastries . Trade is in wine and anise . Albi (Albiga) was, in the Gallo-Roman period, capital of the Albigenses, and later of the viscounty of Albigeois, which was a fief of the counts of Toulouse . From the 12th century onwards, its bishops, the first of whom appears to have lived about the 3rd century, began to encroach on the authority of the viscounts; the latter, after the Albigensian war, lost their estates, which passed to Simon de Montfort and then to the crown of France . By a convention concluded in 1264 the chief temporal power in the city was granted to the bishops . The archbishopric dates from 1678 .