from the 14th to the 16th centuries. The Ostra Brama chapel contains an image of the Virgin greatly venerated by Orthodox Greeks and Roman Catholics alike. The museum of antiquities has valuable historical collections. The ancient castle of the Jagellones is now a mass of ruins. The old university, founded in 1578, was restored (1803) by Alexander I., but has been closed since 1832 for political reasons; the only departments which remain in activity are the astronomical observatory and a medical academy. Vilna is an archiepiscopal see of the Orthodox Greek Church and an episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Church, and the headquarters of the governor-general of the Lithuanian provinces and of the III. army corps. The city possesses a botanical garden and a public library, and is adorned with statues to Catherine II. (1903), the poet Pushkin and Count M. Muraviev (1898). It is an important centre for trade in timber and grain, which are exported; and has theological seminaries, both Orthodox Greek and Roman Catholic, a military school, a normal school for teachers and professional schools. It is the seat of many scientific societies (geographical, medical and archaeological), and has a good antiquarian museum and a public library.
History.—The territory of Vilna has been occupied by the Lithuanians since the 10th century, and probably much earlier; their chief fortified town, Vilna, is first mentioned in 1128. A temple to the god Perkunas stood on one of its hills till 1387, when it was destroyed by Prince Jagiello, after his baptism. After 1323, when Gedymin, prince of Lithuania, abandoned Troki, Vilna became the capital of Lithuania. The formerly independent principalities of Minsk and Lidy, as well as the territory of Disna, which belonged to the Polotsk principality, were annexed by the Lithuanian princes, and from that time Vilna, which was fortified by a stone wall, became the chief city of the Lithuanian state. It was united with Poland when its prince, Casimir IV., was elected (1447) to the Polish throne. The plague of 1588, a fire in 1610 and still more the wars between Russia and Poland, which began in the 17th century, checked its further growth. The Russians took Vilna in 1655, and in the following year it was ceded to Russia. The Swedes captured it in 1702 and in 1706. The Russians again took possession of it in 1788; and it was finally annexed to Russia in 1795, after the partition of Poland. Its Polish inhabitants took an active part in the risings of 1831 and 1863, for which they were severely punished by the Russian government.
VILVORDE, a town of Belgium in the province of Brabant, 9 m. N. of Brussels and on the Senne. Pop. (1904) 14,418. The old castle of Vilvorde, which often gave shelter to the dukes of Brabant in their days of trouble, is now used as a prison. The younger Teniers lived and died at a farm outside Vilvorde, and is buried in the parish church of Dry Toren.
VINCENNES, a town of northern France, in the department of Seine, on a wooded plateau 1¼ m. E. of the fortifications of Paris, with which it is connected by rail and tram. Pop. (1906) town, 29,791; commune, 34,185. Its celebrated castle, situated to the south of the town and on the northern border of the Bois de Vincennes, was formerly a royal residence, begun by Louis VII. in 1164, and more than once rebuilt. It was frequently visited by Louis IX., who held informal tribunals in the neighbouring wood, a pyramid marking the spot where the oak under which he administered justice is said to have stood. The chapel, an imitation of the Sainte Chapelle at Paris, was begun by Charles V. in 1379, continued by Charles VI. and Francis I., consecrated in 1552 and restored in modern times. In the sacristy is the monument erected in 1816 to the memory of the duke of Enghien, who was shot in the castle moat in 1804. Louis XI. made the castle a state prison in which Henry of Navarre, the great Condé, Mirabeau and other distinguished persons were afterwards confined. Under Napoleon I. the castle became a magazine of war-material. Louis XVIII. added an armoury, and under Louis Philippe numerous casemates and a new fort to the east of the donjon were constructed. The place now serves as a fort, arsenal and barracks. It forms a rectangle 417 yds. long by 245 yds. wide. The enclosing wall was originally flanked by nine towers, which were cut down to its level between 1808 and 1811, and now serve as bastions. The donjon is a square tower, 170 ft. high, with turrets at the corners. The Bois de Vincennes, which covers about 2300 acres and stretches to the right bank of the Marne, contains a race-course, a military training-ground, a school of military explosives (pyrotechnic), several artificial lakes, an artillery polygon and other military establishments, an experimental farm, the redoubts of Gravelle and La Faisanderie and the normal school of military gymnastics. The wood, which now belongs to Paris, was laid out during the second empire on the same lines as the Bois de Boulogne. On its south border is the asylum of Vincennes, founded in 1855 for the benefit of convalescents from the hospitals. In the town there is a statue of General Daumesnil, celebrated for his defense of the castle against the allies in 1814 and 1815. Vincennes has a school of military administration and carries on horticulture and the manufacture of ironware of various kinds, rubber goods, chemicals, perfumery, mineral waters, &c.
VINCENNES, a city and the county-seat of Knox county, Indiana, U.S.A., in the S.W. part of the state, on the E. bank of the Wabash river, about 117 m. S.W. of Indianapolis. Pop. (1890) 8853; (1900) 10,249, of whom 736 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 14,895. It is served by the Baltimore & Ohio South-Western, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, the Evansville & Terre Haute, and the Vandalia railways. Extensive levees, 15 m. in length, prevent the overflow of the Wabash river, which for nine months in the year is navigable from this point to the Ohio. The city is level and well drained, and has a good water-supply system. In Vincennes are a Roman Catholic cathedral, erected in 1835, one of the oldest in the West, occupying the site of a church built early in the 18th century; Vincennes University (1806), the oldest educational institution in the state, which in 1910 had 14 instructors and 236 students; St Rose Female Academy, and a public library. Coal, natural gas and oil are found near Vincennes. The city is a manufacturing and railway centre, and ships grain, pork and neat cattle. The total value of the factory products in 1903 was $3,172,279. Vincennes was the first permanent settlement in Indiana. On its site François Margane, Sieur de Vincennes, established a French military post about 1731, and a permanent settlement was made about the fort in 1733. After the fall of Quebec the place remained under French sovereignty until 1777, when it was occupied by a British garrison. In 1778 an agent of George Rogers Clark took possession of the fort on behalf of Virginia, but it was soon afterwards again occupied by the British, who called it Fort Sackville and held it until February 1779, when it was besieged and was captured (on the 23th of February) by George Rogers Clark, and passed finally under American jurisdiction. The site of the fort is marked by a granite shaft erected in 1905 by the Daughters of the Revolution. Vincennes was the capital of Indiana Territory from 1800 to 1813, and was the meeting-place in 1805 of the first General Assembly of Indiana Territory. In 1839 it was incorporated as a borough, and it became a city in 1856.
See J. Law, The Colonial History of Vincennes (Vincennes, 1858); W. H. Smith, “Vincennes, the Key to the North-West,” in L. P. Powell's Historic Towns of the Western States (New York, 1901); “The Capture of Vincennes by George Rogers Clark,” Old South Leaflets, No. 43 (Boston, n.d.); also chap. ii. of J. P. Dunn's Indiana (Boston, 1892).
VINCENT (or Vincentius), ST, deacon and martyr, whose festival is celebrated on the 22nd of January. In several of his discourses St Augustine pronounces the eulogy of this martyr, and refers to Acts which were read in the church. It is doubtful whether the Acts that have come down to us (Acta Sanctorum, January, ii. 394–397) are those referred to by St Augustine, since it is not certain that they are a contemporary document. According to this account, Vincent was born of noble parents in Spain, and was educated by Valerius, bishop of Saragossa, who ordained him to the diaconate. Under the persecution of Diocletian, Vincent was arrested and taken to Valencia. Having stood firm in his profession before Dacianus,
