fortified town of France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Nord, 27 miles S.E. of Lille, at the confluence of the Rhonelle and the Scheldt. It presents, on the whole, a gloomy appearance, for the streets are very narrow and crooked, though the houses are for the most part well built. The most remarkable buildings are the town-hall, partly in the Italian and partly in the Gothic style, formerly adorned with a belfry, which fell to the ground in 1848; the church of St Gery; a handsome theatre; public library of 18,000 volumes; and the academy of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It is the seat of law-courts, a college, hospital, custom-house, arsenal, and barracks. The town is defended by a citadel constructed by Vauban. The most celebrated manufacture of Valenciennes is the lace to which it gives its name; but it also produces cambrics, lawn, muslin, hosiery, leather, beetroot sugar, toys, and earthenware; and has bleachfields, dye-works, and an active trade in corn, timber, and coal. Valenciennes was the birthplace of the historian Froissart and the painter Watteau. It was taken in 1793, after a siege of six weeks, by the allied English and Austrian armies under the Duke of York. Pop. (1856) 20,905.

Valentia. See Kerry.