BERGERAC

town, Dordogne dpartement, Aquitaine rgion, southwestern France, on the Dordogne River, east of Bordeaux. It was intermittently held by the English from 1152 until 1450, and in the 16th and 17th centuries it became a centre of French Protestantism. The Treaty of Bergerac (1577), between Henry III and the Huguenot princes, was a futile attempt to end the Wars of Religion. In 1621 Bergerac was subdued by a royal army, and its fortifications were destroyed. Features include the 19th-century Church of Notre-Dame, Maison Peyrarde (Kings' House), the Tobacco Museum (in the town hall), and the Rcollets' Cloister cellar. The marketing of wines, chestnuts, and truffles is augmented by light manufacturing (tobacco, confectionary, shoes, fruit preserves). The national powder works, dating from World War I, has been converted to chemical production. Pop. (1982) 24,604.