Avallon () is a commune in the Burgundy department of Yonne, in France.
Name
Avallon, Latin
Aballō,
ablative Aballone, is ultimately derived from
Gaulish language *Aballū,
oblique case *Aballon- meaning "Apple-tree (place)" or "(place of the) "Apple Tree Goddess" (from
Proto-Celtic *abalnā, cf.
Old Irish aball,
Welsh language afall,
Old Breton aball(en), "apple tree").
[Koch, John, Celtic Culture, ABC-CLIO, 2006, p. 147.][Matasovic, Ranko, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic, Brill, 2009, p. 23][Delamarre, Xavier , Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise. Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental, Paris, éditions Errance, 2003 (), p. 29.]
Geography
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
river 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,
[Celtic, "Apple-tree" ( ) ] a
mutatio or post where fresh horses could be obtained.
[Aballo appears on the Antonine Itinerary and in the Tabula Peutingeriana. ()] 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
Christianization as
Montmarte ("Mount of the Martyrs").
In the Middle Ages Avallon (Aballo) was 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.
King Arthur and the French Avallon theory
A theory exists which proposes that the Isle of Avalon mentioned in
Arthurian legend is, in fact, Avallon in Burgundy.
Geoffrey Ashe first mentioned the French Avallon theory in his 1985 book, The Discovery of King Arthur. His theory is that "King Arthur" is based on the historical Romano-British supreme king Riothamus, who reigned between 454–470, and whose life and campaigns have parallels to the accounts of "King Arthur" in the first medieval accounts of King Arthur by Geoffrey of Monmouth (Historia Regum Britanniae, ). According to Ashe, in the year 470, Riothamus disappeared (and presumably died) in the neighborhood of Avallon after being defeated in the battle of Déols by Euric king of the Visigoths, whom the Western Roman Emperor Anthemius had hired Riothamus to fight against.[Jordanes, The Origin and Deeds of the Goths XLV.237, quoted at Riothamus.] This, and other aspects of his reign, made Ashe propose him as a candidate for the historical King Arthur, with Avallon becoming the Arthurian Avalon. No ancient source mentioning Riothamus places him anywhere near Avallon and Geoffrey of Monmouth, who is the first to mention "the isle of Avalon" (Latin insula Auallonis) and based his description of the isle on Classical descriptions of the Fortunate Isles, is explicit that it was an island in the western seas. In Geoffrey's day (and, indeed, dating back to geographers of antiquity), the Fortunate Isles were identified with the Canary Islands.
Population
Sights
Its chief building, the formerly collegiate church of
Autun Cathedral, dates from the twelfth century, on an earlier foundation dedicated to Notre Dame. 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. Avallon has a statue of
Vauban, the military engineer of Louis XIV.
Economy
As of the early 20th century, the manufacture of
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.
Miscellaneous
As of the early 20th century, the public institutions included the subprefecture, a tribunal of first instance, and a départemental college.
Twin towns
Avallon is twinned with:
Climate
See also
-
Communes of the Yonne department
-
Parc naturel régional du Morvan
Notes
Attribution:
Further reading
External links
