NERAC  , a

town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Lot-et-Garonne, 16 m . W.S.W. of Agen by road . Pop . (Igo6) town, 4018; commune, 6318 . The town, once the capital of the dukes of Albret, is divided by the Baise into two parts, Grand-Nerac on the left bank and Petit-Nerac on the right bank . The river is spanned by a bridge of the 16th century, called the Pont Vieux, and by the Pont Neuf, of modern construction . Narrow winding streets often bordered by old houses ascend from the narrow quays on both banks . From the left bank a staircase leads to the Rue Henri Quatre, where stands a wing of the castle in which Henry IV. lived . A statue of the king stands in one of the squares . The former palace of the Chambre des Comptes is now occupied by the tribunal of commerce, the library and the museum . The church of Grand-Nerac of the 18th century and the church of Petit-Nerac of the 19th century offer no remarkable features . On the left bank of the Baise, above Grand-Nerac, market gardens have taken the place of the old gardens of the Sires d'Albret, but remains of the Palais des Mariannes and of the Pavilion des Bains du Roi de Navarre, both of Renaissance architecture, are left .

The famous

promenade of La Garenne laid out by Antoine de Bourbon, king of Navarre, stretches for more than a mile along the opposite bank of the river . The remains of a Roman villa, including a fragment of mosaic, have been found there . A road leads from the south end of La Garenne to the ruins of the feudal castle of Nazareth . The Chateau du Tasta of the 15th century is within a short distance of Nerac . The town has a sub-prefecture, and the industries include brewing and cork-working . Nerac appears at the beginning of the rlth century as a possession of the monks of St Pierre de Condom . The lords of Albret gradually deprived them of their authority over the town, and at the beginning of the 14th century founded a castle on the left bank of the Baise . In the 16th century the castle was the residence of Henry IV. during much of his youth and of in 1851, of Chita, the present capital of Transbaikalia, Nerchinsk has been falling into decay .