Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Thiers

THIERS, a town of France, chef-lieu of an arrondissement in the department of Puy-de-Dome, on the railway between Clermont and St Etienne, 24 miles east-north east of the former town. It is most picturesquely situated on the side of a hill, at the foot of which the Durolle rapidly descends through a narrow valley into the Dore, in its turn a tributary of the Allier. The streets, rising in steep rows, contain many wooden and gabled houses, some of which are as old as the 15th century, and a fine view of the Plain of Limagne and the Dome Hills is obtainable from the terraces. All the processes of making cutlery maybe seen at Thiers, giving employment to 12,000 work men in the town and the villages within a radius of 6 to 7 miles. Sheath-making, tanning, and paper-making (chiefly stamps and playing cards) employ 8000 hands, and the business done reaches 1,200,000 per annum. The church of Le Moutier, so named from a Benedictine monastery of which it formed part, contains building of the 7th, 8th, and 11th centuries; the tower is more modern. There were 12,005 inhabitants in 1886 (commune 16,754).

Thiers was sacked in 523 by the soldiers of Thierry, the son of Clovis; and Gregory of Tours speaks of a wooden chapel which then existed here (on the site of the present church of Le Moutier). The church of St Genez was built in 573 by Avitus, bishop of Clermont, on the site of the ancient Tigernum Castrum, was rebuilt in 1016 by Wido, lord of Thiers, and again in the 12th century. There is some curious mosaic work of the 12th century, and a fine tomb of the 13th. The commercial importance of Thiers was greatly increased three centuries ago, when the manufacture of the larger kinds of cutlery was introduced from Chateldon, between Vichy and Thiers.