A picturesque town on the slopes of the Jura, 1 m. from the N. shore of Lake Geneva, is the capital of the Swiss canton of Vaud; noted for its educational institutions and museums, and for its magnificent Protestant cathedral; it has little industry, but considerable trade, and is a favourite tourist resort; here took place the disputation between Calvin, Farel, and Viret, and here Gibbon wrote the "Decline and Fall."