Aveiro

Aveiro, a town of Portugal, a bishop's see, 40 miles S. of Oporto by rail, on a salt lake or lagoon joined to the sea by a canal. Pop. 9167.

Avellino

Avelli'no (anc. Abellinum), chief town of an Italian province at the foot of Monte Vergine, 59 miles E. of Naples by rail. It has a cathedral. Pop. 23,790.

Aventine Hill

Aventine Hill. See Rome.

Avernus

Aver'nus (Gr. Aornos, 'birdless;' now Lago d'Averno), a small, nearly circular lake in Campania, Italy, situated between Cumse, Puteoli, and BaiAe. It is l 1/2 mile in circumference, and occupies the crater of an extinct volcano. The mephitic vapours arising from it were believed in ancient times to kill the birds that flew over it; hence, according to some, its Greek appellation. Owing to its gloomy and awful aspect, it became the centre of almost all the fables of the ancients respecting the world of shades. Here were located Homer's entrance to the under world, the Elysian fields, the grove of Hecate, and the grotto of the Cumean Sibyl.

Aversa

Aversa, a town of Italy, 12 1/2 miles by rail N. of Naples. Pop. 23,183.

Avesnes

Avesnes (A-vehn'), a town in the French dep. of Nord, 13 miles E. by rail of Cambrai. Pop. 5446.

Aveyron, a mountainous dep. in the south of France, named from the river which runs 90 miles westward through it to the Tarn, a feeder of the Garonne. Area, 3376 sq. m.; population, 382,000. The capital is Rodez.

Avezzano

Avezza'no, a town of South Italy, 22 miles 8. ofAquila. Pop. 6166.

Avigliano

Aviglia'no, a town of South Italy, 10 miles NW. of Potenza. Pop. 12,949.

Avila

Av'ila, capital of a Spanish province of Avila, in Old Castile, stands 3000 feet above the Sea, at the base of the Sierra de Guadarrama, 71 miles NW. of Madrid by rail. It has a fine Gothic cathedral, a Moorish castle, and massive granite walls 42 feet high and 14 broad, with 86 towers and 10 gateways. Its university (1482) was reduced to a college in 1807. Pop. 11,809. Here St Teresa was born. The province is mountainous. Area, 2981 sq. m.; pop. 200,500.

Aviles

Aviles (anc. Flavignavia), a seaport of Spain, close to the Bay of Biscay, 19 miles N. of Oviedo. Pop. 12,145.

Avlona

Avlona (Ital. Valona, anc. Aulon), the best seaport in Albania, stands on an eminence near an inlet of the Adriatic, protected by the island of Sasseno (anc. Saso). It carries on considerable trade with Brindisi, etc. Pop. 5000. Valonia, imported hence to England for tanning, is the acorn-cup of a kind of oak. Up to 1691 the town belonged to the Venetians.

Avoca

Avo'ca, or Ovoca (Celt. 'meeting of the waters'), a small river of County Wicklow, formed by the union of the Avonmore and Avon-beg. It runs through a very picturesque vale only 1/4 mile broad, with wooded banks 300 to 500 feet high, and after a course of 9 miles reaches the sea at Arklow. See Avondale.

Avola

Av'ola (Abolla), a seaport of Sicily, 13 miles SW. of Syracuse. The famous honey of Hybla comes from this neighbourhood. Pop. 12,286.