TARBES  , a

town of south-western France, capital of the department of Hautes-Pyrenees, 98 m . W.S.W. of Toulouse on the Southern railway . Pop . (1906) town, 20,866; commune, 25,869 . Tarbes is situated in a beautiful and fertile plain, in full view of the Pyrenees, on the left bank of the Adour, streams from which are conducted through all parts of the town . The lines of the Southern railway from Morcenx to Bagneres-de-Bigorre and Lourdes and from Toulouse to Bayonne cross here . Chief among the many open spaces is the Jardin Massey • (35 acres), given to his native town by a director of the gardens of Versailles and containing a museum of sculptures, paintings and antiquities . Near a small lake stands a cloister (15th century) transferred from the abbey of St Sever-de-Rustan, 14 M . N.E. of Tarbes, and a bust of Theophile Gautier, a native of Tarbes . The architecture of the cathedral, Notre Dame de la Sede, is heavy and unpleasing, but the cupola of the transept (14th century), the modern glass in the 12th-century apse, and a rose window of the 13th century, in the north transept, are worthy of notice . There is also a modernized Carmelite church originally built in the 13th century . Tarbes is a well-known centre for the breeding of Anglo-Arabian horses, much used by light cavalry; and its stud is the most important in the south of France .

The

industrial establishments include tanneries, tile-works, saw-mills and turners' shops . There are important fairs and markets . Well-known race-meetings are held on the Laloubere course . Under the Roman dominion Turba, which was about 11 m . S.E. of the present town of Tarbes, was the capital of -the Bigerriones, one of the states of Novempopulania . The bishopric of Tarbes dates from the 5th century, and in feudal times its bishops held the chief temporal authority, that of xxvi . 14the counts of Bigorre, of which Tarbes was capital, being limited to the quarter of the town where their castle was built . The English held the town from 1360 to 1406 . In 1569 Tarbes was burnt by Gabriel, count of Montgomery, and the inhabitants were driven out . This happened a second time, but in August 1590 the peace of St Germain allowed them to return, Subsequently Tarbes was several times taken and re-taken, and a number of the inhabitants of Bigorre were forced to take refuge in Spain, but in 1594 the members of the League were finally expelled . The English, under Wellington, gained a victory over the French near Tarbes in 1814 .