Lausanne, a city of Switzerland, capital of the canton of Vaud, situated near the N. shore of the lake and 31 m. N. E. of the city of Geneva, and about 1/2 m. from Ouchy, its port on the lake; pop. in 1870, 26,520. It is built on three steep hills, which project from Mont Jo-rat, the highest of which is crowned by the old cathedral, 500 ft, above the lake. The gymnasium, which was founded in 1537, was in 1806 converted into an academy, which has three faculties. There is also a theological faculty belonging to the synod of the Free church, a cantonal school, a normal school, an institution for the blind, an insane asylum, a cantonal mu' seum, a cantonal library with more than 90,-000 volumes, and several learned societies. The cathedral, a noble Gothic structure completed in the 13th century, is adorned with a lofty tower and a spire, and contains the remains of St. Bernard de Menthon. The church of St. Francois is also a very old building, and is memorable for the council assembled within its walls in 1449, in which Felix V. resigned his claims to the popedom. The other remarkable buildings are: the old episcopal palace, now the government house, the penitentiary, the charity schools, and the casino or club house. The streets are steep, narrow,'and ill paved.

The manufactures comprise woollen cloth, paper, leather, and jewelry, and some trade is carried on in wine, which is the staple of the canton. Steamboats ply on the lake between Ouchy, Geneva, and other towns; and there are railways to Yverdun, Geneva, Bern, and Vevay. Among the objects of interest are the house in which Gibbon wrote the greatest part of his "Decline and Fall," and the grave of John Philip Kemble, the tragedian, in the cemetery of St. Pierre de Plain near the city. A Celtic burial ground has been discovered about 6 m. N. W. of the city, near Cheseaux. - Lausanne became the see of a bishop in the 6th century; but in 1536 the bishop transferred his seat to Fribourg, as Lausanne had joined the Reformed church. Since then Fribourg has been the residence of the bishop of the diocese, which retained the title of Lausanne till 1819, when it was called Lausanne and Geneva, as the Catholic parishes of the canton of Geneva were united with it. In 1873 the bishop resumed the former title of bishop of Lausanne, as the pope had erected the canton of Geneva into an independent vicariate apostolic.

The federal council of Switzerland regarded the change of the title and the territory of one of the Swiss dioceses as an encroachment upon the rights of the confederation, and refused to recognize it. (See Switzerland.)

Lausanne.