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San Bernardino, Alpine pass, Switzerland

(Encyclopedia)San Bernardino sän bĕrnärdēˈnō [key], Alpine pass, 6,770 ft (2,063 m) high, between Mesocco Valley and Rheinwald Valley, Grisons canton, SE Switzerland. Used possibly since prehistoric times, it...

Rhône, river, Switzerland and France

(Encyclopedia)Rhône, Lat. Rhodanus, river, 505 mi (813 km) long, rising in the Rhône glacier, NE Valais, Switzerland. It flows west through a narrow, flat valley that separates the Bernese Alps from the Pennine A...

relics

(Encyclopedia)relics, part of the body of a saint or a thing closely connected with the saint in life. In traditional Christian belief they have had great importance, and miracles have often been associated with th...

Carpaccio, Vittore

(Encyclopedia)Carpaccio, Vittore vēt-tôˈrā kärpätˈchō [key], c.1450–1522, Venetian painter, influenced by Gentile and Giovanni Bellini. His delightful narrative paintings reflect the pageantry of 15th-cen...

Piero della Francesca

(Encyclopedia)Piero della Francesca pyĕˈrō dĕlˈlä fränchāsˈkä [key], c.1420–1492, major Italian Renaissance painter, b. Borgo San Sepolcro (modern Sansepolcro). All his masterpieces were created in town...

Franche-Comté

(Encyclopedia)Franche-Comté fräNsh-kôNtāˈ [key] or Free County of Burgundy, former province and former administrative region, E France. It is coextensive with Haute-Saône, Doubs, and Jura depts. Dôle was the...

Holy Island

(Encyclopedia)Holy Island or Lindisfarne lĭnˈdĭsfärn [key], off the coast of Northumberland, NE England. At low tide the island is connected with the mainland by a stretch of sand. It is partly cultivated, and ...

Saint Petersburg, city, Russia

(Encyclopedia)Saint Petersburg, formerly Leningrad, Rus. Sankt-Peterburg, city (1990 est. pop. 5,036,000), capital of the Leningrad region (although not administratively part of it) and the administrative center of...

Wettingen

(Encyclopedia)Wettingen vĕtˈĭng-ən [key], town (1990 pop. 17,706), Aargau canton, N Switzerland. It is the site of the Zürich power station and of industries that produce textiles and metal goods. In the town ...

Iona

(Encyclopedia)Iona īōnˈə [key] [Irish Ioua=island] or Icolmkill [Irish,=island of Columba of the church], island (1985 est. pop. 267), 3.5 mi (5.6 km) long and 1.5 mi (2.4 km) wide, Argyll and Bute, NW Scotland...