AIX  , a

city of south-eastern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Bouches-du-Rhone, 18 m . N. of Marseilles by rail . Pop . (1906) 19,433 . It is situated in a plain overlooking the Arc, about a mile from the right bank of the river . The Cours Mirabeau, a wide thoroughfare, planted with double rows of plane-trees, bordered by fine houses and decorated by three fountains, divides the town into two portions . The new town extends to the south, the old town with its wide but irregular streets and its old mansions dating from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries lies to the north . Aix is an important educational centre, being the seat of the faculties of law and letters of the university of Aix-Marseille, and the north and east quarter of the town, where the schools and university buildings are situated, is comparable to the Latin Quarter of Paris . The cathedral of St Sauveur, which dates from the rith, 12th and 13th centuries, is situated in this portion of Aix . It is preceded by arich portal in the Gothic style with elaborately carved doors, and is flanked on the north by an uncompleted tower . The interior contains tapestry of the 16th century and other works of art . The archbishop's palace and a Romanesque cloister adjoin the cathedral on its south side .

The

church of St Jean de Malte, dating from the 13th century, contains some valuable pictures . The hotel de ville, a building in the classical style of the middle of the 17th century, looks on to a picturesque square . It contains some fine wood-work and a large library which includes many valuable MSS . At its side rises a handsome clock-tower erected in 1505 . Aix possesses many beautiful fountains, one of which in the Cours Mirabeau is surmounted by a statue of Rene, count of Provence, who held a brilliant court at Aix in the 15th century . Aix has thermal springs, remarkable for their heat and containing lime and carbonic acid . The bathing establishment was built in 1705 near the site of the ancient baths of Sextius, of which vestiges still remain . The town, which is the seat of an arch-bishop and court of appeal, and the centre of an academie (educatidnal circumscription), numbers among its public institutions a court of assizes, tribunals of first instance and of commerce, and a chamber of arts and manufactures . It also has training-colleges, a lycee, a school of art and technics, museums of antiquities, natural history and painting, and several learned societies . The industries include flour-milling, the manufacture of confectionery, iron-ware and hats, and the distillation of olive-oil . Trade is in olive-oil, almonds and stone from the neighbouring quarries . Aix (Aquae Sextiae) was founded in 123 B.C. by the Roman consul Sextius Calvinus, who gave his name to its springs .

In 102 B.C. its neighbourhood was the

scene of the defeat inflicted on the Cimbri and Teutones by Marius . In the 4th century it became the metropolis of Narbonensis Secunda . It was occupied by the Visigoths in 477, in the succeeding century was repeatedly plundered by the Franks and Lombards, and was occupied by. the Saracens in 731 . Aix, which during the middle ages was the capital of the county of Provence, did not reach its zenith until after the 12th century, when, under the houses of Aragon and Anjou, it became an artistic centre and seat of learning . With the rest of Provence, it passed to the crown of France in 1487, and in 15o1 Louis XII. established there the parlement of Provence which existed till 1789 . In the 17th and 18th centuries the town was the seat of the intendance of Provence . AIX-LA-CHAPELLE (Ger . Aachen, Dutch Aken), a city and spa of Germany, in the kingdom of Prussia, situated in a pleasant valley, 44 M . W. of Cologne and contiguous to the Belgian and Dutch frontiers, to which its municipal boundaries extend . Pop . (1885) 95,725; (1905) including Burtscheid, 143,906 . Its position, at the centre of direct railway communications with Cologne and Dusseldorf respectively on the E. and Liege-Brussels and Maestricht-Antwerp on the W., has favoured its rise to one of the most prosperous commerical towns of Germany .

The city consists of the old inner town, the former ramparts of which have been converted into promenades, and the newer

outer town and suburbs . Of the ancient gates but two remain, the Ponttor on the N.W. and the Marschiertor on the S . Its general appearance is that rather of a spacious modern, than of a medieval city full of historical associations . Of the cluster of buildings in the centre, which are conspicuous from afar, the town hall (Rathaus) and the cathedral are specially noteworthy . The former, standing on the south side of the market square, is a Gothic structure, erected in 1353-1370 on the ruins of Charlemagne's palace . It contains the magnificent coronation hall of the emperors (143 ft. by 61 ft.), in which thirty-five German kings and eleven queens have banqueted after the coronation ceremony in the cathedral . The two ancient towers, the Granusturm to the W. and the Glockenturm to the E., both of which to a large extent had formed part of the Carolingian palace, were all but destroyed in the fire by which the Rathaus was seriously damaged in 1883 . Their restoration was completed in 1902 . Behind the Rathaus is the Grashaus, in which Richard of Cornwall, king of the Romans, is said to have held his court . It was restored in 1889 to accommodate the municipal archives . The cathedral is of great historic and architectural interest . Apart from the spire, which was rebuilt in 1884, it consists of two parts of different styles and date .

The older portion, the

capella in palatio, an octagonal building surmounted by a dome, was designed on the model of San Vitale at Ravenna by Udo of Metz, was begun under Charlemagne's auspices in 796 and consecrated by Pope Leo III. in 8o5 . After being almost entirely wrecked by Norman raiders it was rebuilt, on the original lines, in 983, by the emperor Otto III . It is surrounded on the first story by a sixteen-sided gallery (the Hochmunster) adorned by antique marble and granite columns, of various sizes, brought by Charlemagne's orders from Rome, Ravenna and Trier . These were removed by Napoleon to Paris, but restored to their original positions after the peace of 1815 . The mosaic representing Christ surrounded by "the four-and-twenty elders," which originally lined the cupola, had almost entirely perished by the 19th century, but was re-stored in 1882 from a copy made in the 17th century . Interesting too are the magnificent west doors, cast in bronze by native workmen in 804 . Underneath the dome, according to tradition, was the tomb of Charlemagne, which, on being opened by Otto III. in r000, disclosed the body of the emperor, vested in white coronation robes and seated on a marble chair . This chair, now placed in the gallery referred to, was used for centuries in the imperial coronation ceremonies . The site of the.tomb is marked by a stone slab, with the inscription Carlo Magno, and above it hangs the famous bronze chandelier presented by the emperor Frederick I . (Bnrbarossa) in 1168 . Charlemagne's bones are preserved in an ornate shrine in the Hungarian Chapel, lying to the north of the octagon . The casket was opened in 1906, at the instance of the emperor William II., and the draperies enclosing the body were temporarily removed to Berlin, with a view to the reproduction of similar cloth .

The Gothic

choir, forming the more modern portion of the cathedral, was added during the latter half of the 14th and thebeginning of the 15th century, and contains the tomb of the emperor Otto III . The cathedral possesses many relics, the more sacred of which are exhibited only once every seven years, when they attract large crowds of worshippers . Of the other thirty-three churches in the city those of St Foillan (founded in the 12th century, but twice rebuilt, in the 15th and 17th centuries, and restored in 1883) and St Paul, with its beautiful stained-glass windows, are remarkable . In addition to those already mentioned, Aix-la-Chapelle possesses several fine secular buildings: the Suermondt museum, containing besides other miscellaneous exhibits the fine collection of pictures by early German, Dutch and Flemish masters, presented to the town by Bartholomaus Suermondt (d . 1887); the public library; the theatre; the post-office; and the fine new central railway station . Among the schools may be mentioned the magnificently equipped Rhenish-Westphalian Poly-technic School (built 1865-187o) and the school of mining and electricity, founded in 1897 . There are many fine streets and squares and some handsome public monuments, notably among the last the fountain on the market square surmounted by a statue of Charlemagne, the bronze equestrian statue of the emperor William I. facing the theatre, the Kriegerdenkmal (a memorial to those who fell in the war of 1870) and the Kongress-Denkmal, a marble hall in antique style erected in 1844 on the Adalberts-Steinweg to commemorate the famous congress of 1818 (see below) . Of the squares, the principal is the Friedrich-VVilhelmplatz, on which lies the Elisenbrunnen with its colonnade and garden, the chief resort of visitors taking the baths and waters . The hot sulphur springs of Aix-la-Chapelle were known to the Romans and have been celebrated for centuries as specific in the cure of rheumatism, gout and scrofulous disorders . There are six in all, of which the Kaiserquelle, with a temperature of 136° F., is the chief . In the neighbouring Burtscheid (incorporated in 1897 with Aix-la-Chapelle) are also springs of far higher temperature, and this suburb,. which has also a Kurgarten, is largely frequented during the season . In respect of trade and industry Aix-la-Chapelle occupies a high place .

Its cloth and

silk manufactures are important, and I . I5owing to the opening up of extensive coalfields in the district almost every branch of iron industry is carried on . It has some large breweries and manufactories of chemicals, and does a considerable trade in cereals, leather, timber and wine . It is also an important banking centre and has several insurance societies of reputation . The country immediately surrounding Aix-la-Chapelle presents many attractive features . From the Lousberg and the Salvatorberg to the north, the latter crowned by a chapel, magnificent views of the city are obtained; while covering the hills 2 M. west stretches the Stadtwald, a forest with charming walks and drives . History.—Aix-la-Chapelle is the Aquisgranum of the Romans, named after Apollo Granus, who was worshipped in connexion with hot springs . As early as A.D . 765 King Pippin had a "palace" here, in which it is probable that Charlemagne was born . The greatness of Aix was due to the latter, who between 777 and 786 built a magnificent palace on the site of that of his father, raised the place to the rank of the second city of the empire, and made it for a while the centre of Western culture and learning . From the coronation of Louis the Pious in 813 until that of Ferdinand I. in 1531 the sacring of the German kings took place at Aix, and as many as thirty-two emperors and kings were here crowned . In 851, and again in 882, the place was ravaged by the Northmen in their raids up the Rhine .

It was not, however, till

late in the 12th century (1172-1176) that the city was surrounded with walls by order of the emperor Frederick I., to whom (in 1166) and to his grandson Frederick II . (in 1215) it owed its first important civic rights . These were still further extended in 1250 by the anti-Caesar William of Holland, who had made himself master of the place and of the imperial regalia, after a long siege, in 1248 . The liberties of the burghers were, however, still restrained by the presence of a royal advocatus (Vogt) and bailiff . In 1300 the outer ring of walls was completed, the earlier circumvallation being marked by the limit of the Altstadt (old city) . In the 14th century Aix, now a free city of the Holy Roman Empire, played a conspicuous part, especially in the league which, between 1351 and 1387, kept the peace between the Meuse and the Rhine . In 1450 an insurrection led to the admission of the gilds to a share in the municipal government . In the 16th century Aix began to decline in importance and prosperity . It lay too near the French frontier to be safe, and too remote from the centre of Germany to be convenient, as a capital; and in 1562 the election and coronation of Maximilian II. took place at Frankfort-on-Main, a precedent followed till the extinction of the Empire . The Reformation, too, brought its troubles . In 158o Protestantism got the upper hand; the ban of the empire followed and was executed by Ernest of Bavaria, archbishop-elector of Cologne in 1598 . A relapse of the city led to a new ban of the emperor Matthias in 1613, and in the following year Spinola's Spanish troops brought back the recalcitrant city to the Catholic fold .

In 1656 a great fire completed the ruin wrought by the religious

wars . By the treaty of Luneville (18o1) Aix was incorporated with France as chief town of the department of the Roer . By the congress of Vienna it was given to Prussia . The contrast between the new regime and the ancient tradition of the city was curiously illustrated in 1818 by a scene described in Metternich's Memoirs, when, before the opening .of the congress, Francis I., emperor of Austria, regarded by all Germany as the successor of the Holy Roman emperors, knelt at the tomb of Charlemagne amid a worshipping crowd, while the Protestant Frederick William III. of Prussia, the new sovereign of the place, stood in the midst, "looking very uncomfortable." See Quix, Geschichte der Stadt Aachen (1841) ; Pick, Aus Aachens Vergangenheit (Aachen, 1895) ; Bock, Karls des grossen Pfalzkapelle (Cologne, 1867) ; and Beissel, Aachen als Kurort (1889) . AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, CONGRESSES OF . Three congresses have been held at Aix-la-Chapelle: the first in 1668, the second in 1748, the third in 1818 . r . The treaty of the 2nd of May 1668, which put an end to the War of Devolution, was the outcome of that of St Germain II signed on the 15th of April by France and the representatives of the powers of the Triple Alliance . The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle left to France all the conquests made in Flanders during the campaign of 1667, with all their " appartenances, dependances et annexes." a vague provision of which, after the peace of Nijrawegen (1680), Louis XIV. took advantage to occupy a number of villages and towns adjudged to him by his Chamlrres de reunion as dependencies of the cities and territories acquired in 1668 . On the other hand, France restored to Spain the cities of Camhrai, Aire and Saint-Omer, as well as the province of Franche Comte . The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was placed under the guarantee of Great Britain, Sweden and Holland, by a convention signed at the Hague on the 7th of May 1669, to which Spain acceded . See Jean du Mont, baron de Carlscroon, Corps universel diplomatique (Amst., 1726-1731) .

2 . On the 24th of April 1748 a congress assembled at Aix-la-Chapelle for the purpose of bringing to a conclusion the struggle known as the War of

Austrian Succession . Between the 3oth of April and the 21St of May the preliminaries were agreed to between Great Britain, France and Holland, and to these Maria Theresa, queen of Bohemia and Hungary, the kings of Sardinia and Spain, the duke of Modena, and the republic of Genoa successively gave their adhesion . The definitive treaty was signed on the 18th of October, Sardinia alone refusing to accede, because the Beaty of Worms was not guaranteed . Of the provisions of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle the most important were those stipulating for (r) a general restitution of conquests, including Cape Breton to France, Madras to England and the barrier towns to the Dutch; (2) the assignment to Don Philip of the duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla; (3) the restoration of the duke of Modena and the republic of Genoa to their former positions; (4) the renewal in favour of Great Britain of the Asiento contract of the 16th of March 1713, and of the right to send an annual vessel to the Spanish colonies; (5) the renewal of the article of the treaty of 1718 recognizing the Protestant succession in the English throne; (6) the recognition of the emperor Francis and the confirmation of the pragmatic sanction, i.e. of the right of Maria Theresa to the Habsburg succession; (7) the guarantee to Prussia of the duchy of Silesia and the county of Glatz . Spain having raised objections to the Asiento clauses, the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was supplemented by that of Madrid (5th of October 1750), by which Great Britain surrendered her claims under those clauses in return for a sum of £Ioo,000 . See A . J . H. de Clercq, Recueil des traites de la France; F . A . Wenk, Corpus juris gentium recenlissimi, 1735-1772, vol. ii . (Leipzig, 1786), p .

337: Comte G. de Garden, Hist. des traites de paix, 1848-1887, 111. p . 373 . 3 . The congress or

conference of Aix-la-Chapelle, held in the autumn of 1818, was primarily a meeting of the four allied powers—Great Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia— to decide the question of the withdrawal of the army of occupation from France and the nature of the modifications to be introduced in consequence into the relations of the four powers towards each other, and collectively towards France . The congress, of which the first session was held on the 1st of October, was attended by the emperor Alexander I. of Russia, the emperor Francis I. of Austria, and Frederick William III. of Prussia, in person . Great Britain was represented by Lord Castlereagh and the duke of Wellington, Austria by Prince Metternich, Russia by Counts Capo d'Istria and Nesselrode, Prussia by Prince Harden-berg and Count Bernstorff . The duc de Richelieu, by favour of the allies, was present on behalf of France . The evacuation of France was agreed to in principle at the first session, the consequent treaty being signed on the 9th of October . The immediate object of the conference being thus readily disposed of, the time of the congress was mainly occupied in discussing the form to be taken by the European alliance, and the " military measures," if any, to be adopted as a precaution against a fresh outburst on the part of France . The proposal of the emperor Alexander I. to establish a " universal union of guarantee " on the broad basis of the Holy Alliance, after much debate, brokedown on the uncompromising opposition of Great Britain; and the main outcome of the congress was the signature, on the 15th of November, of two instruments: (r) a secret protocol confirming and renewing the quadruple alliance established by the treaties of Chaumont and Paris (of the loth of November 1815) against France; (2) a public " declaration " of the intention of the powers to maintain their intimate union, " strengthened by the ties of Christian brotherhood," of which the object was the preservation of peace on the basis of respect for treaties . The secret protocol was communicated in confidence to Richelieu; to the declaration France was invited publicly to adhere . Besides these questions of general policy, the congress concerned itself with a number of subjects left unsettled in the hurried winding up of the congress of Vienna, or which had arisen since .

Of these the most important were the questions as to the methods to be adopted for the suppression of the slave-trade and the

Barbary pirates . In neither case was any decision arrived at, owing (I) to the refusal of the other power's to agree with the British proposal for a reciprocal right of search on the high seas; (2) to the objection of Great Britain to inter-national action which would have involved the presence of a Russian squadron in the Mediterranean . In matters of less importance the congress was more unanimous . Thus, on the urgent appeal of the king of Denmark, the king of Sweden (Bernadotte) received a peremptory summons to carry out the terms of the treaty of Kiel; the petition of the elector of Hesse to be recognized as king was unanimously rejected; and measures were taken to redress the grievances of the German mediatized princes . The more important outstanding questions in Germany, e.g. the Baden succession, were after consideration reserved for a further conference to be called at Frankfort . In addition to these a great variety of questions were considered; from that of the treatment of Napoleon at St Helena, to the grievances of the people of Monaco against their prince and the position of the Jews in Austria and Prussia . An attempt made to introduce the subject of the Spanish colonies was defeated by the opposition of Great Britain . Lastly, certain vexatious questions of diplomatic etiquette were settled once for all (see DIPLOMACY) . The congress, which broke up at the end of November, is of historical importance mainly as marking the highest point reached in the attempt to govern Europe by an international committee of the powers . The detailed study of its proceedings is highly instructive in revealing the almost insurmountable obstacles to any really effective international system . AIX-LES-BAINS, a town of France, in the department of Savoie, near the Lac du Bourget, and 9 M. by rail N. of Chambery . Pop .

(1901) 4741 . It is 846 ft. above the level of the

sea . It was a celebrated bathing-place, under the name of Aquae Gratianae, in the time of the Romans, and possesses numerous ancient remains . The hot springs, which are of sulphureous quality, and have a temperature of from ro9° to 113° F., are still much frequented, attracting annually many thousands of visitors . They are used for drinking as well as for bathing purposes .