AVESNES, an arrondissement in the department of Nord, in France, containing 10 cantons and 152 communes. Pop. in 1851, 145,046. The capital, of the same name, is situated in a fertile district on the Greater Helpe. It is generally well built, and is fortified on Vauban's system. Its principal building is the cathedral, surmounted by a tower 330 feet high, which is raised on four columns, and has a fine chime. It is the seat of a sub-prefect, and has a tribunal of primary jurisdiction, an agricultural society, and a communal college. Pop. in 1851, 29,46. The principal manufactures are hosiery, coarse serge, and soap; there are also breweries, tanneries, salt-refineries, and brick and marble works. A great part of the town was destroyed by the explosion of a powder-magazine during the siege by the Prussians in July 1815.