Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/287

V I T V I T 263 stairs, and there struck down amid a shower of fierce eager blows. " Yet I was once your emperor," were the last, and, as far as we know, the noblest words of Vitellius. He perished thus miserably in his 57th year. The Histories of Tacitus and the biography of Suetonius give us in full detail the story of Vitellius. In Alerivale s History of the liomans under the Empire (chaps. 56, 57) the period is fully and vividly described. VITERBO, a city of Italy, capital of a circondario in the province of Rome, lies 1200 feet above sea-level, on the Arcione, at the north-western base of Monte Cimino (3450 feet), on the high road between Florence and Rome, 42 miles north-north-west of the latter city ; a branch line (2i|- miles) connects it with the Attigliano station on the railway. It is picturesquely surrounded by luxuriant gardens, and enclosed by walls and towers, which date partly from the Lombard period. The streets are paved with large lava blocks, and the town has many handsome edifices, and some elegant fountains; among the latter may be mentioned the Fontana della Rocca by Vignola (1566). The cathedral, a fine basilica, with 13th-century restora tions, contains the tombs of Popes Alexander IV., Clement IV., and John XXI. In 1271 it was the scene of the murder, on the steps of the high altar, during public worship, of Henry, son of Richard of Cornwall, by Guy de Montfort (see Dante, Inf., xii. 118). In the sacristy is a Madonna with saints by Lorenzo di Viterbo. The old episcopal palace is a Gothic building of the 13th century, in which numerous conclaves have been held. The church of St Rosa exhibits the embalmed body of that saint, a native of Viterbo, who died in her eighteenth year, after working various miracles and having distin guished herself by her invectives against Frederick II. (1251). St Francesco contains the tomb of Pope Adrian V., and has an important work by Sebastiano del Piombo; .the Gothic cloisters of St Maria della Verita are strikingly beautiful. The town-hall contains some Etrurian sarco phagi and a few good paintings. The inhabitants of Viterbo (15,279 in 1881) are chiefly dependent on agri culture ; hemp is a specialty of the district, and tobacco and various grains are largely grown, as well as the olive and vine. There are in the vicinity numerous mineral springs ; the warm sulphur spring of Bulicame, about 2 miles off, is alluded to by Dante (Inf., xiv. 79). Viterbo lias sometimes, but very doubtfully, been identified with the Fanum Voltumnsc, where the general assembly of the Etruscans used to be held. It was fortified by the Lombards, and in the Middle Ages became a favourite papal residence. Popes Urban IV. (1261), Gregory X. (1271), John XXI. (1276), Nicholas III. (1277), and Martin IV. (1281) were elected here, and it was at Viterbo that Alexander IV. (1261), Clement IV. (1268), Adrian V. (1276), and John XXI. (1277) died. VITORIA, a town of Spain, capital of the Basque province of Alava, stands at a height of about 1750 feet above sea-level, on a small hill commanding the plain of Alava, 234 miles by rail north-north-east of Madrid. The oldest part of the town, the Campillo or Villa-Suso, occupies the top of the hill ; some of the walls and towers by which it was formally defended still remain, but it is now almost deserted, and chiefly occupied by gardens. Below it is " A 7 itoria Antigua," with narrow tortuous lanes; on the lower level ground is the modern town, with wide streets, an arcaded market place, and shady promenades. The cathedral of St Mary in the Campillo dates its founda tion from 1181, and has some good Gothic arches, but has been considerably spoiled by late additions ; the church of San Miguel also dates from the 12th century, but does not possess any features of special interest. Vitoria, from its favourable position, is an important centre of trade in vine, wool, horses, mules, and hardware ; the chief industries are paper-making, carriage-building, cabinet-making, tanning, and the manufacture of earthernware. The population within the municipal boundaries in 1877 was 25,039. Though an obscure village seems to have occupied the site from an early period, the existence of Vitoria as a town dates from 1181, when Sancho the Wise of Navarre granted a "fuero" similar to that of Logrofio, and fortified the place. A decisive victory was here gained by the Anglo-Spanish army under Wellington over the French under Joseph Bonaparte and Jourdan on June 21, 1813. VITRE, a town of France, chef-lieu of an arrondissement in the department of Ille-et-Vilaine, stands on a hill rising from the left bank of the Vilaine, 24 miles east of Rennes by the railway to Paris. The town has preserved as many features of the Middle Ages as any in France, and viewed from the north its feudal aspect is striking. The streets are formed of confused masses of wooden houses, full of projections and curves, covered with coarse slate over grown with moss and lichen, and are bordered by covered galleries on a level with the ground, out of which dark shops open. Most of the curious houses, ornamented with statuettes and sculptures, are older than the first half of the 17th century. Only one vault remains of the original castle, founded towards the end of the llth century; the rest was rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries (the best period of Breton military architecture in Brittany), and all has been recently restored. It is now occupied by a prison, a museum of natural history and painting, and the town library (GOOO volumes). In the court is the former collegiate church, some of it older than the 12th century. The church of Notre Dame, formerly a priory of the abbey of St Melaine of Rennes, dates from the loth and 16th centuries. An outside stone pulpit is a fine example of 16th-century sculpture. Parts of the ramparts are still standing, and other parts are built into the houses of the town. There is a well-wooded botanical garden, and the remains of a castle destroyed at the Revolution. The chief articles of trade are cloth, hosiery, and thick clothing made of goats skins. The chateau of Les Rochers, celebrated through Madame de Sevigne, stands 3 miles from the town. The population in 1886 was 8957 (commune 10,447). Vitro was formerly a Breton barony, and belonged in the 10th century to the younger branch of the counts of liennes. In 1295 it passed to Guy IX. baron of Laval, on his marriage with the heiress, and afterwards successively belonged to the families of Rieux, Coliguy, and La Tremoille. The town was seized by Charles VIII. in 1488. Protestantism spread under the rule of the houses of Kieux and Coligny ; Vitre became a Huguenot stronghold ; and a Protestant church was established, which was not suppressed till the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685. Mercceur, the head of the members of the League in Brittany, besieged the town in vain for five months in 1589, and was forced to withdraw by the army under the Prince do Dombes. The estates of Brittany, over which the barons of Vitre and of Leon alternately presided, met here several times, and Madame de Sevigne gives interesting details of such an occasion. Vitre was the birth place of Pierre Landais, the favourite minister of Francis II., duke of Brittany (hanged in 1485), of his nephew Cardinal Guibe, and of Bertrand d Argentre, jurist and the historian of Brittany. VITRIFIED FORTS is the name given to certain rude stone enclosures whose walls bear traces of having been subjected to the action of fire. They are generally situated on elevated hills, which occupy strong and easily defended positions. Their form is irregular, and seems to have been determined rather by the contour of the flat summits which they enclose than by any definite architectural plan. The walls vary in size, some being comparatively small, while a few are upwards of 12 feet high, and are so broad that they present the appearance of huge embank ments. Weak and exposed parts in the defence are strengthened by double or triple walls, and occasionally vast lines of ramparts, composed of large blocks of unhewn and unverified stones, are drawn around the fortified hills at some distance from the vitrified centre. No lime or cement has been found in any of these structures, but all

of them present the peculiarity of being more or less con-