1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nemours

NEMOURS, a town of northern France, in the department of Seine-et-Marne, on the Loing and its canal, 26 m. S. of Melun, on the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. (1906) 4814. The church, which dates mainly from the 16th century, has a handsome wooden spire, and there is a feudal castle. A statue of the mathematician Bézout (d. 1783), a native of the town, was erected in 1885. In the vicinity is a group of fine sandstone rocks, and sand is extensively quarried. Nemours is supposed to derive its name from the woods (nemora) in the midst of which it formerly stood, and discoveries of Gallo-Roman remains indicate its early origin. It was captured by the English in 1420, but derives its historical importance rather from the lordship (afterwards duchy) to which it gave its name. In 1585 a treaty revoking previous concessions to the Protestants was concluded at Nemours between Catherine de Medici and the Guises.