BRIGNOLES, the capital of an arrondissement in the department of Var, in France, is situated in a fertile and pleasant valley on the right bank of the Calami, 22 miles

N. N.E. of Toulon. It is neat and well built, and has a magnificent fountain, a public library, a normal school, manufactures of silk thread and leather, and an active trade in wines, brandy, liqueurs, and excellent prunes— the last distinctively known as prunes de Brignoles. The prefecture has its offices in the palace of the counts of Provence, and the old house of the Templars is occupied by the theological seminary. Brignoles is a town of great antiquity. In 1291 it gave its name to a treaty between Alphonso III. of Aragon and the king of France. In ancient documents it is often mentioned as Villa Puerorum, from the fact that the children of the counts of Provence were generally born and brought up in the castle. In 1524 the town was taken and pillaged by Charles V., and in 1588 it met a similar fate at the hands of the Leaguers. Population of town in 1872, 4843.