ne apartments were ruthlessly adapted, but it is now municipal
property. Among the minor churches of the town are St Pierre, which has a
graceful facade and richly carved doors, St Didier and St Agricol, all
three of Gothic architecture. The most notable of the civil buildings are
the hotel de ville, a modern building with a belfry of the 14th century,
and the old Hotel des Monnaies, the papal mint which was built in 1610 and
is now used as a music-school. The Calvet Museum, so named after F. Calvet,
physician, who in 1810 left his collections to the town, is rich in
inscriptions, bronzes, glass and other antiquities, and in sculptures and
paintings. The library has over 140,000 volumes. The town has a statue of a
Persian, Jean Althen, who in 1765 introduced the culture of the madder
plant, which long formed the staple and is still an important branch of
local trade. In 1873 John Stuart Mill died at Avignon, and is buried in the
cemetery. For the connexion of Petrarch with the town see PETRARCH.

Avignon is subject to violent winds, of which the most disastrous is the
_mistral_. The popular proverb is, however, somewhat exaggerated, _Avenio
ventosa, sine vento venenosa, cum vento fastidiosa_ (windy Avignon,
pest-ridden when there is no wind, wind-pestered when there is).

Avignon is the seat of an archbishop and has tribunals of first instance
and of commerce, a council of trade-arbitrators, a lycee, and training
college, a chamber of commerce and a branch of the Bank of France. It is in
the midst of a fertile district, in the products of which it has a large
trade, and has flour-mills, distilleries, oil-works and leather-works,
manufactures soap, chemicals and liquorice, and is well known for its
sarsanet and other fabrics.

Avignon (_Avenio_) was an important town of the Gallic tribe of the
Cavares, and under the Romans one of the leading cities of Gallia
Narbonensis. Severely harassed during the barbarian invasions and by the
Saracens, it was, in later times, attached successively to the kingdoms of
Burgundy and of Arles and to the domains of the counts of Provence and of
Toulouse and of Forcalquier. At the end of the 12th century it became a
republic, but in 1226 was taken and dismantled by Louis VIII. as punishment
for its support of the Albigenses, and in 1251 was forced to submit to the
counts of Toulouse and Provence. In 1309 the city was chosen by Clement V.
as his residence, and from that time till 1377 was th