Avallon

• Name — Avallon • Commune Status — Subprefecture and commune • Arrondissement — Avallon • Canton — Avallon • Insee — 89025 • Postal Code — 89200 • Mayor — Jamilah Habsaoui • Term — 2021–2026 • Intercommunality — CC Avallon - Vézelay - Morvan • Elevation M — 254 • Elevation Min M — 163 • Elevation Max M — 369 • Area Km2 — 26.75

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").

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.

Chance finds of coins and pottery fragments and a fine head of Minerva are reminders of the Roman settlement carrying the Celtic name Aballo, a mutatio or post where fresh horses could be obtained. 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"). 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.

Its chief building, the formerly collegiate church of Saint-Lazare, 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. • Illustration — Smaller door of St Lazarus of Avallon (12th century).

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.

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

Avallon is twinned with: • Belgium Pepinster, Belgium • Germany Cochem, Germany • Tenterden, United Kingdom • Japan Saku, Japan