AVALLON  , a

town of central France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Yonne, 34 M . S.S.E. of Auxerre on a branch of the Paris-Lyon railway . Pop . (rgo6) 5197 . The town, with wide streets and picturesque promenades, is finely situated on a promontory, the base of which is washed on the south by the Cousin, on the east and west by small streams . Its chief building, the church of St Lazare, dates from the 12th century . The two western portals are adorned with sculpture in the ornate Romanesque style; the tower on the left of the facade was rebuilt in the 17th century . The Tour de L'Horloge, pierced by a gateway through which passes the Grande Rue, is a 15th century structure containing a museum on its second floor . Remains of the ancient fortifications, including seven of AVEBURY 51 the flanking towers, are still to be seen . Avallon has a statue of Vauban, the military engineer . The public institutions include the subprefecture, a tribunal of first instance, and a communal college . The manufacture of biscuits and gingerbread, and of leather and farm implements is carried on, and there is consider-able traffic in wood, wine, and the live-stock and agricultural produce of the surrounding country .

Avallon (Aballo) was in the

middle ages the seat of a viscounty dependent on the duchy of Burgundy, and on the death of Charles the Bold passed under the royal authority .