Vallombrosa

Vallombro'sa ('shady Valley'), a celebrated abbey among the Apennines, 15 miles E. of Florence, in a valley surrounded with forests of fir, beech, and chestnut trees. Here an order of Benedictine monks was founded about 1038; the present magnificent buildings were erected in 1673. In 1869 the monastery was suppressed; but the place is still much visited by tourists. Milton was here in 1639, Wordsworth in 1837.

Valls

Valls, a manufacturing town of Spain, 12 miles N. of Tarragona. Pop. 13,000.

Valmy

Valmy (Val-mee'), a French village in the dep. of Marne, 20 miles NE. of Chalons. At the famous 'cannonade of Valmy,' 20th Sept. 1792, Dumouriez forced the Prussians to retreat.

Valtelline

Valtelline (Val'tel-leen), the upper Adda's rich valley down to its influx into the Lake of Como.

Valtos

Valtos, a crofter coast-village of Skye, 13 1/2 miles N. by E. of Portree. Pop. 323.

Van

Van, a walled town of Turkey in Asia, the capital once of an Armenian kingdom, near the SE. shore of Lake Van, 145 miles SE. of Erzerum. Pop. 35,000. - Brackish Lake Van (80 x 30 miles) has no visible outlet.

Vancouver

Vancouver, a town of British Columbia, the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway (1887), stands on Burrard Inlet (at its head is Port Moody, the former terminus; pop. 3000), 2906 miles by rail W. by N. of Montreal. Its site a dense forest till 1885, it now possesses miles of well-made streets, lit by gas and electricity, electric trams, a fine Anglican cathedral, a handsome opera-house, three parks, wharves and warehouses, smelting-works, etc, and has steamship connection with San Francisco, China, Japan, and the Australasian colonies. Pop. 26,250.

Van Diemens Land

Van Diemen's Land. See Tasmania.

Vannes

Vannes (Vann), a French seaport, capital of the Breton dep. Morbihan, stands at the mouth of a tributary of the Gulf of Morbihan, 10 miles from the sea. It has a cathedral (13th to 15th centuries), an old Maison du Parlement, many carved houses, a rich museum of Celtic antiquities, and manufactures of woollens and ropes and some shipbuilding. Pop. 19,625.

Van Wert

Van Wert, the capital of Van Wert county, Ohio, 27 miles WNW. of Lima. Pop. 6430.

Var

Var, a dep. of SE. France, with the three arrondissements of Draguignan (the capital), Brignoles, and Toulon. Area, 2349 sq. m.; pop. (1872) 293,757; (1901) 326,384.

Varallo

Varal'lo, an Italian town, 35 miles NW. of Novara by rail. Pop. 3500.

Varanger Fiord

Varanger Fiord (Vah-rang'er), a deep inlet of the Arctic Ocean into Finmark, the northernmost province of Norway.

Varasdin

Varasdin. See Warasdin.

Vardo

Vardo, a Norwegian fishing-town on Vardo island, at the E. end of Finmark (pop. 2630).

Varennes

Varennes (Varenn'), a town in the French dep. of Meuse, 18 miles NW. of Verdun. Here Louis XVI. and his family were captured making for the frontier, 22d June 1791. Pop. 1200.

Varese

Varese (Varay'zay), a town of N. Italy, at the end of Lake Varese (7 sq. m.), 18 miles by rail W. of Como. Pop. 5872.