ESTREMOZ. 



ETAMPES. 



in ituat*d. Erirrira, 27 mile* N.W. from Libon, u a small fishing 

 town on the coast, with a population of 2200. Leiria, 75 mile* 

 'V. from Lisbon, i* U.. . .ipitnl of the district of Leiria. It 

 occupies the angle formed by the junction of the Lena with the I.i. 

 It in defended by a castle, and contains a cathedral, two college*, an 

 bwpital, and a small theatre. Much of the town waa destroyed by 

 fire when the French retreated in 1811, and the rebuilding wai com- 

 menced by the Portuguese government in ISIS: population, 2200. 

 tfafra, 20 mile* N.W. from Lisbon, in a Urge village on the top of a 

 hill, and in front of a Taut edifice, which was a combination of a ivy.il 

 pulnce with a convent. A wall 15 mile* in circumference sun-omuls 

 the royal hunting-ground* belonging to the palace. The convent was 

 formerly inhabited by 800 Franciscan monks, nnd same of the royal 

 family generally occupied the palace, which still possesses one of the 

 finest libraries in Portugal. The palace as well as the conventual 

 building! are fast fulling into decay. The population of the village is 

 about 3000. t,ulut, 47 miles N. from Lisbon, stands on an eminence, 

 and in defended by an old Moorish castle. There are extensive 

 remains of a Roman aqueduct. About three mile* to the south is the 

 strong poaition of Rolica, which was stormed by the British army, 

 August 17. !'-: ]-.].iilntion, 3000. Ourem, 12 miles S.E. from 

 Leiria, is situated on an eminence, and is surrounded by walls, and 

 defended by a castle : population, 3700. Palmtlta, 18 miles S.E. from 

 Lisbon, occupies a strong position on the Hope of a hill, which is 

 crowned by a castle. It contains two parish churches and an hospital, 

 and has a population of 2700. Punhete, 73 miles N.N.E. from Lisbon, 

 stands on the eastern bank of the Zezere. which is here crossed by a 

 bridge. It forms a strong military position : population, 1100. .San- 

 form, 50 miles N.N.E. from Lisbon, is the capital of the district of 

 Bantarem. It stands on the western side of the Tagus, and occupies 

 the summit and eastern and northern sides of a hill. It contains 

 several churches, and there are some palaces now in a ruinous state, 

 which indicate its former grandeur, when the court was held here in 

 the 15th century. The adjacent country is very productive, -and it 

 has a brisk trade with Lisbon by the river: population, 8000. 

 Se-ul'iil, or Si. L'bet (St. Ubes being a corruption of Setubol), 20 

 miles S. E. from Lisbon, stands on the north chore of the Bay 

 of Setubol, which there forms a large and deep harbour, but the 

 entrance is impeded by sand-banks. The quays are wide and con- 

 venient. A fine valley extends to some distance round the town. 

 The old walls of the town are in a ruinous state, and would now 

 indeed be of little use, owing to some adjacent heights which command 

 the whole valley, and which are crowned by two or three forts. The 

 houses are tolerably good, but the streets are narrow, crooked, and 

 dirty. There are four squares, each supplied with a fountain, four 

 parish churches, two or three hospitals, and two schools for Latin nnd 

 the science*. Great quantities of salt ore made in the neighbourhood, 

 and the exportation of this article, and of wine, oranges, and lemons 

 is considerable. An active fishery is also carried on : population, 

 15,000. Thomar, 75 miles N.N.E. from Lisbon, stands on the south- 

 western bank of the Nab&o, a small affluent of the Zezere, in a plain 

 covered with gardens and plantations of olive-trees. The town is 

 tolerably well-built, and contains several fountains, two parish 

 clmrch-s, of which one is collegiate, and the fine buildings which 

 belonged to the convent of the military ordrr of Christ, where the 

 grand-prior resided : population, 3800. Torre* Vedrnt, 28 miles 

 N.N.W. from Lisbon, stands on the Zizambre, in front of the first of 

 the ridges which were fortified by Sir Arthur Wellesley in order to 

 enable him to resist the French army under Massena. The series of 

 redoubts, entrenchments, and other defences, were called the Lines 

 of Torres Vedras. Sir William Napier ('Peninsular War') says, 

 "The Lines of Torres Vedras consisted of three distinct ranges of 

 defence : 1. From Alhandra on the Tagus to the mouth of the 

 Zizambre on the sea-coast, following the inflections of the hills, was 

 29 mile* long. 2. The second line, traced at a distance of 6 to 10 

 milea in rear of the first, stretching from QuinteUa on the Tagus to the 

 mouth of the St. Lorenzo, was 24 miles long. 8. The third line, 

 intended to cover a forced embarcation, extended from Passo d'Arcos 

 on the Tagus to the tower of Junqucra on the coast" The population 

 of the town of Torres Vedras ia 2300. rimiera, 86 miles N. X. E. from 

 Lisbon, u a small town about two miles from the mouth of the 

 Maeeirm. Here Sir Arthur Wellealey defeated the French, August 21, 

 1808. ThU victory was the immediate occasion of the treaty for the 

 evacuation of Portugal by the French army, which hu been impro- 

 perly called the Convention of Cintra; it was signed August 22, in 

 UM neighbourhood of the field of battle, and 80 miles distant from 

 :. ra " : ' ;.-. v, . -. rol i , 



BSTREMUZ. [At.KMTMo.] 



E8ZEK (Bud; ia Slavonic Oart), capital of Slavonia in Austria, 

 It i a royal free town situated in a lovcl and manhy district <m tin- 

 right bank of the Drove, and about 12 miles above its mouth in the 

 Danube. IU site is that of the Mursia, or Mursa of the Romans, 

 which was founded A.I. 125 by the emperor Hadrian, and afterwards 

 became the residence of the Roman governors of Lower Pannonia. 

 It gave title to a bishop from A.D. 885. It now consists of four 

 quarters ; the present fortress, begun under the emperor Leopold I. 

 in 1712, and finished in 1719, is well built, contains 147 handsome 

 and lofty houses, an arsenal and barrack, and is regularly fortified : 



an esplanade runs round it, and to the north-west of it stands the 

 Felso-Varos (I'pjwr Town), which is approached by an avenue 

 1100 paces long, is the residence of the merchants and dealers, and 

 has well-attended fairs. South-east of the fortress lies the Also-Varos, 

 or Lower Town, the site of the ancient Hursa, which consists of 

 broad and handsome streets, and has some fine churches; and in the 

 east is the New Town, composed rather of farms and gardens than 

 of lines of streets. The fortress and suburbs contain altogether 

 about 1800 houses, 5 Roman Catholic churches, 4 chapels, a Greek 

 church, and about 12,000 iuhnbitanta. There are several handsome 

 buildings, such as the town-hall, the house of assembly for the states 

 of Veroce, the county in which Eszek is situated, the barracks, 

 engineers' house, officers' pavilion, and arsenal. Eaiek has a Roman 

 Catholic high-school, a gymnasium, a Greek school, a military cadet 

 y, and Franciscan and Capu< hin inti:i<t< rics. A causeway 

 or bridge about 2J miles in length, 65 feet in breadth, and 9 feet in 

 height, constructed in the year 171 i, Inids across the brave au<l the 

 swamps on its northern bank into the Hungarian county of Baranya. 

 With the exception of xome silk-spinning there is little mechanical 

 industry in the town. There is a COIIM<!I mHe t rude in grain, cattle, and 

 raw hides. Steamers ply between Eszek and the towns on the Danube. 



ETAMPES, a town in France, capital of an arrondissemont in 

 the department of Seine-et-Oise, is a first-class station on the Orleans 

 railway, 35 miles S by W. from Paris. It is the seat of a tribunal of 

 first Instance, of a college, and agricultural society, and has a popu- 

 lation of 8083, including the commune. The town stands in : 

 49" N. lat, 2 9' 23" E. long., on the bank of two little streams, that 

 unite just below the town with the river Juine (or, as it is sometimes 

 called, the river Etampes), which flows into the Essone, a feeder of 

 the Seine. 



The town is mentioned more than once in the chronicles of the 

 first race of French kings. In A.D. 604 Clothaire II. was di : 

 near Stampae (Etampea) by his nephew Thierry, who her' 

 Merovee prisoner, and goon after entered Paris in triumph. In the 

 year 911 Etampcs was burnt by the Northmen under Rollo. In the 

 latter ]>art of the same century, or the beginning of the 

 Constance, wife of Robert, king of France, built here a castl 

 Robert himself converted the castle chapel into a collegiate church 

 dedicated to Sainte Marie. In A.D. 1147 an assembly of the grandees 

 of the kingdom was held in Etampes, a crusade was determined 

 upon, and the Abb<S Suger and Rao'ul de Vermandois were appointed 

 regents of France in the absence of Louis VII. The castle was held 

 for the king in the llth and 12th centuries by officers who had 

 the titles of I'revot, Bailli, or Vicomte. There was a Jews' synagogue 

 4 l."!inpe, which, on the expulsion of that people from France by 

 Philippe Auguste, A.D. 1182, was converted into .1 church, that of 

 Notre Dame, yet standing. After the death of Philippe Auguste the 

 castle of Etampes ceased to be a residence of kings, and was used as 

 a state prison. In the 14th century Etampes was given by Philipiw 

 le Bel to his brother Louis, count of Evreux. Tho town and castle sur- 

 rendered after a siege to the Bourguignons, who massacred the Orleonist 

 garrison in 1411. In the 16th century Etampcs, with its territory or 

 county, was erected into a duchy in favour of Jenn de Brasses, whose 

 wife was mistress of Francois I. In the religious wars of France, 

 A.D. 1562, the town was taken by the Germans brought into France 

 by the Prince of Conde". In A.D. 1567 it wan taken by assault by the 

 Huguenots; in 15S9 it was the rendezvous of the troops of the 

 League, from whom it was token by Henri III. In A.D. 1590 it was 

 taken from the party of the League, into whose hands it hod again fallen, 

 by Henri IV., who caused the fortifications of the castle to be razed. 

 The town was unsuccessfully besieged by Turcnne during the civil war 

 of the Fronde in 1662. In the revolutionary frenzy of 1792, a 

 seditious band of about 800 men entered the market-place, and fixed 

 the price at which corn must be sold. Sitnoneau, mayor of the town, 

 in opposing this violence and in defending the freedom of trade, was 

 murdered by the ruffians. The National Assembly decreed that a 

 monument sneald be erected to his memory in the market-square of 

 Etampes; but the decree has not yet been executed. 



The town is in a tolerably fertile valley. It is pretty well built,, 

 and surrounded by shady promenades. The tower of Quinette ia all 

 that remains of the ancient castle. There are four churches. That 

 of Notre-Dame has a lofty tower and spire; the semicircular arch 

 may be observed in it. The architecture and the style of the sculp- 

 tures mark the edifice as a work of the 13th century. The church of 

 St-Bosil, founded by King Robert, bos a handsome portal decorated 

 with graceful columns, and statuary representing a scone at the Last 

 Judgment The church of St -Giles is also very ancient, probably not 

 later than the llth century ; it has the semicircular arch, with zigzag 

 moulding*. The church of St.-Martin is perhaps the finest ecclesi- 

 astical edifice in the town. There are in the town several houses 

 built about the time of the revival of the arts. One of these, it is 

 said, was built and inhabited by Diana de Poitiers, duchess of 

 Etampes, and mistress of Francois I. The town-hall is an ancient 

 turrated building. There 1s also a large public granary, three 

 high, capable of containing nearly 1400 tons' weight of wheat Near 

 the town are remains of an ancient building, probably of Roman origin, 

 but popularly called the ' Tower of Brunehaut' A modem castle has 

 been erected upon these ruins. 



