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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
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.
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
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