AIX, an ancient city of France, the chief town of the arrondissement of the same name, in the department of the Bouches-du-Rhone. It was the Aquae Sextiae of the Romans, and between this and Arelate (Arles) is the field on which Marius gained his great victory over the Teutons. Under the counts of Provence, Aix became celebrated as a seat of learning; and it still retains many relics of its former splendour, and is distinguished by the number and excellence of its literary institutions. It has a library of 100,000 volumes, an academy of law, science, and theology, a museum, and a chamber of commerce. The cathedral—the baptistry of which is said to have been constructed from the remains of a Roman temple—the “Palais,” the town-hall, and the clock-tower, are fine specimens of ancient architecture. There are numerous public fountains, on one of which is sculptured a figure of King Réné by David. The hot springs, from which the city derives its name, are not now in much repute. Aix is the seat of a court of justice and an archbishopric. The chief manufactures are cotton, silk, thread, and hardware; and olives and almonds are cultivated on the surrounding hills. There is considerable commerce in corn, wine, and oiL The naturalists Adanson and Tournefort, and the painter Vanloo, were born at Aix. Population (1872), 29,020....

AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, the German Aachen, the capital of a district of the same name in Rhenish Prussia, situated near the Wurm, a tributary of the Meuse, in a pleasant and fertile valley about 40 miles west of Cologne, with which it is connected by railway. It is well built, and is enclosed by ramparts that have been converted into promenades, and its appearance is rather that of a prosperous modern town than of an ancient city full of historical associations. Its town-house, built in 1353 on the ruins of Charlemagne’s palace, contains the magnificent coronation hall of the German emperors, 162 feet long by 60 feet wide. Near the town-house are two ancient towers, one of which, called the Granusthurm, is sometimes said to be of Roman origin; and a fountain, with a statue of Charlemagne, which was erected in 1620. The cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle consists of two parts, distinct both as to the time of their erection and their style of architecture. The older portion may be said to date either from 796 a.d., when it was erected by Charlemagne as the palace chapel, or from 983, when it was rebuilt on the old model by Otho III., after having been almost entirely destroyed by the Normans. It consists of an octagon, planned after that of St Vitale at Ravenna, surrounded by a sixteensided gallery, and terminating in a cupola. It contains the tomb of Charlemagne, which was opened in the year 1000, when the body of the emperor was found seated on a marble throne which was afterwards used in the imperial coronation ceremonies. The Gothic choir, which forms the more modern portion of the cathedral, was added during the latter half of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th centuries. The cathedral possesses many relics, the most sacred of which are exhibited only once every seven ...