LAVAUR  , a

town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Tarn, 37 M . S.E. of Montauban by rail . Pop . (1906), town 4069; commune 6388 . Lavaur stands on the left bank of the Agout, which is here crossed by a railway-bridge and a fine stone bridge of the late 18th century . From 1317 till the Revolution Lavaur was the seat of a bishopric, and there is a cathedral dating from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, with an octagonal bell-tower; a second smaller square tower contains a jaquemart (a statue which strikes the hours with a hammer) of the 16th century . In the bishop's garden is the statue of Emmanuel Augustin, marquis de Las Cases, one of the companions of Napoleon at St Helena . The town carries on distilling and flour-milling and the manufacture of brushes, plaster and wooden shoes . There are a subprefecture and tribunal of first instance . Lavaur was taken in 1211 by Simon de Montfort during the wars of the Albigenses, and several times during the religious wars of the 16th century .