Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Sierre syĕr [key], Ger. Siders, town (1990 pop. 14,143), Valais canton, S Switzerland, on the Rhône River. A market town, it is the center of a rich horticultural region. There is a large aluminum p...

(Encyclopedia) Barbara, Saint, fl. 3d or 4th cent., virgin martyr, whose life is shrouded in contradictory legends. Her father is said to have shut her up in a tower and then to have killed her for being a Christian...

(Encyclopedia) Bluebeard, nickname of the chevalier Raoul in a story by Charles Perrault. In the story Bluebeard's seventh wife, Fatima, yielding to curiosity, opens a locked door and discovers the slain bodies of h...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Pagoda pagoda pəgōˈdə [key], name given in the East to a variety of buildings of tower form that are usually part of a temple or monastery group and serve as shrines. Those of India (see s...

(Encyclopedia) transept trănˈsĕptˌ [key], term applied to the transverse portion of a building cutting its main axis at right angles or to each arm of such a portion. Transepts are found chiefly in churches, whe...

(Encyclopedia) Edward V, 1470–83?, king of England (1483), elder son of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. His father's death (1483) left the boy king the pawn of the conflicting ambitions of his paternal uncle, t...

(Encyclopedia) Quai d'Orsay kā dôrsāˈ [key], quay on the left bank of the Seine River in Paris, extending from the Eiffel Tower to the Palais Bourbon (housing the national assembly). Next to the Palais Bourbon s...

(Encyclopedia) Veszprém vĕˈsprām [key], town (1991 est. pop. 64,277), W Hungary, near the Lake of Balaton. It is a commercial center producing textiles, wine, knitted goods, and foodstuffs. Made a bishopric by S...

(Encyclopedia) Loyola University of Chicago, at Chicago; Jesuit; coeducational; est. 1870 as St. Ignatius College, present name adopted 1909. It has a liberal arts college and a graduate school, as well as schools o...

(Encyclopedia) Douglas, city, capital of the Isle of Man, Great Britain. It is a popular resort, connected by rail to Ramsey and Port Erin, on the Irish Sea. Tourism i...