You are on page 1of 4

Coordinates: 47°29′27″N 3°54′33″E

Avallon
Avallon (French pronunciation: [avalɔ̃]) is a town (French: commune) in the
Yonne department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in central-eastern
Avallon
France. Subprefecture and commune

Contents
Name
Geography
History
King Arthur and the French Avallon theory
Sights
Economy
Miscellaneous
Twin towns
See also [show]
Location of A vallon
Notes
References
Further reading
External links

Name
Avallon, Latin Aballō, ablative Aballone, is ultimately derived from
Gaulish *Aballū, oblique *Aballon- meaning "Apple-tree (place)" or "
(place of the) "Apple Tree Goddess" (from Proto-Celtic *abalnā, cf. Old
Irish aball, Welsh afall, Old Breton aball(en), "apple tree").[1][2][3]

Geography Avallon

Avallon is located 50 km south-southeast of Auxerre, served by a branch


of the Paris-Lyon railway and by exit 22 of the A6 motorway. The old
town, with many winding cobblestone streets flanked by traditional stone
and woodwork buildings, is situated on a flat promontory, the base of
which is washed on the south by the Cousin, on the east and west by
small streams.

History
Chance finds of coins and pottery fragments and a fine head of Minerva
are reminders of the Roman settlement carrying the Celtic name
Aballo,[4] a mutatio or post where fresh horses could be obtained.[5] Two
pink marble columns in the church of St-Martin du Bourg have been
reused from an unknown temple (Princeton Encyclopedia). The Roman
citadel, on a rocky spur overlooking the Cousin valley, has been
Christianized as Montmarte ("Mount of the Martyrs").
Avallon
Avallon (Aballo) was in the Middle Ages the seat of a viscounty
dependent on the duchy of Burgundy; on the death of Charles the Bold in
1477, it passed under the royal authority. The castle, mentioned as early
as the seventh century, has utterly disappeared.

Coordinates: 47°29′27″N 3°54′33″E


King Arthur and the French Avallon theory
A theory exists which proposes that the Isle of Avalon mentioned in
Country France
Region Bourgogne-Franche-
Arthurian legend is, in fact, Avallon in Burgundy.
Comté
Geoffrey Ashe first mentioned the French Avallon theory in his 1985
Department Yonne
Arrondissement Avallon
book, The Discovery of King Arthur. His theory is that "King Arthur" is
Canton Avallon
based on the historical Romano-British supreme king Riothamus, who
Intercommunality CC Avallon - Vézelay -
reigned between 454–470, and whose life and campaigns have parallels Morvan
to the accounts of "King Arthur" in the first medieval accounts of King
Government
Arthur by Geoffrey of Monmouth (Historia Regum Britanniae, c. 1136).
• Mayor (2014- Jean-Yves Caullet
According to Ashe, in the year 470, Riothamus disappeared (and 2020)
presumably died) in the neighborhood of Avallon after being defeated in
Area1 26.75 km2
the battle of Déols by Euric king of the Visigoths, who the Western (10.33 sq mi)
Roman Emperor Anthemius had hired him to fight against.[6] This, and
Population 7,025
other aspects of his reign, made Ashe propose him as a candidate for the (2014)2
historical King Arthur, with Avallon becoming the Arthurian Avalon. No • Density 260/km2 (680/sq mi)
ancient source mentioning Riothamus places him anywhere near Avallon
Time zone UTC+01:00 (CET)
and Geoffrey of Monmouth, who is the first to mention "the isle of
• Summer (DST) UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Avalon" (Latin insula Auallonis) and based his description of the isle on
INSEE/Postal 89025 /89200
Classical descriptions of the Fortunate Isles, is explicit that it was an
code
island in the western seas. In Geoffrey's day (and, indeed, going all the
Elevation 163–369 m (535–
way back to geographers of antiquity), the Fortunate Isles were identified
1,211 ft)
with the Canary Islands. (avg. 254 m or 833 ft)
1
French Land Register data, which excludes lakes,
Sights ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres)
and river estuaries. 2 Population without double
Its chief building, the formerly collegiate church of Saint-Lazare, dates counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g.,
from the twelfth century, on an earlier foundation dedicated to Notre students and military personnel) only counted once.

Dame.[7] Vestiges of the earlier church were revealed beneath the high
altar in an excavation of 1861. The acquisition of a relic of Saint Lazare prompted its rededication: Saint Ladre is attested in the
fourteenth century. It was the seat of an archdeaconate answering to the bishop of Autun. The two western portals are densely
adorned with sculpture in the Romanesque style; the tower on the left of the facade was rebuilt in the seventeenth century. The Tour
de l'Horloge, pierced by a gateway through which passes the Grande Rue, is an eleventh-century structure containing a museum on its
second floor. Remains of the ancient fortifications, including seven of the flanking towers, are still to be seen.[7] Avallon has a statue
of Vauban, the military engineer of Louis XIV.

Economy
As of the early 20th century, the manufacture of biscuits and gingerbread, and the leather and farm implements supported the
economy in Avallon, and there was considerable traffic on wood, wine, and the live-stock and agricultural produce in the surrounding
country.[8]

Miscellaneous
As of the early 20th century, the public institutions included the subprefecture, a tribunal of first instance, and a départemental
college.[8]

Twin towns
Avallon is twinned with:

Pepinster, Belgium
Cochem, Germany
Tenterden, United Kingdom
Saku, Japan

See also
Communes of the Yonne department
Parc naturel régional du Morvan

Notes
1. Koch, John, Celtic Culture, ABC-CLIO, 2006, p. 147.
2. Matasovic, Ranko, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic, Brill, 2009, p. 23
3. Delamarre, Xavier , Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise. Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental,
Paris, éditions Errance, 2003 I(SBN 2-87772-237-6), p. 29.
4. Celtic, "Apple-tree" ("FalileyevMap.pdf" (http://cadair.aber.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/2160/282/12/FalileyevMap.pdf)
(PDF). Cadair the Aberystwyth University online research repository . Retrieved November 2011. Check date values
in: |accessdate= (help) )
5. Aballo appears on theAntonine Itinerary and in the Tabula Peutingeriana. ("Avallo = Aballo:aval0072"(http://www.sc.
edu/ltantsoc/aval0072.htm). Society for Late Antiquity, University of South Carolina. Retrieved November 2011.
Check date values in: |accessdate= (help))
6. Jordanes, The Origin and Deeds of the GothsXLV.237, quoted at Riothamus.
7. Chisholm 1911, p. 51.
8. Chisholm 1911.

References
Floyde, Marilyn. King Arthur's French Odyssey: Avallon in Burgundy (2nd ed.). Books Sans Frontieres.
ISBN 9780956983541.
Attribution:

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911)."Avallon" .
Encyclopædia Britannica. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 51.

Further reading
Stillwell, Richard, ed. (1976)."Aballo (Avallon), Yonne, France". Princeton Encyclopaedia of Classical Sites.
(subscription required)

External links
Official website (in French)
Medieval Zodiac Signs plus Monthly Labours from l'église Saint-Lazare, vallon
A
Island of Avallon, French Avalon website
Avallon page on the site Bourgogne Romane

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avallon&oldid=882041131"

This page was last edited on 6 February 2019, at 12:48(UTC).

Text is available under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of theWikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

You might also like