Dole (anc. Dola), a town of France, department of the Jura, 28 m. S. E. of Dijon; pop. in 1866, 11,093. It is situated on the slope and at the foot of a hill on the right bank of the river Doubs, near the canal that joins the Rhone and the Rhine. The railway from Dijon to Besancon, which passes the town, gives it some importance as a place of transit between Paris and Switzerland. It has a college, a public library of 40,000 volumes, two hospitals, and the ruins of a castle built in the 12th century. The principal building is the cathedral of Notre Dame. There are manufactures of hosiery, pottery, and chemicals, iron-smelting furnaces, flour mills, tile works, tanneries, and quarries. Dole is of great antiquity, having been a considerable town under the Romans, and is situated on the old road leading from Lyons to the Rhine. Some remains of this work, as well as of an ancient aqueduct and theatre, are still to be seen. It was for a time the capital of Franche-Comte and the seat of a parliament. After having been taken once or twice previously, it was captured and dismantled by the French in 1674. During the Franco-German war it was for a time the headquarters of Garibaldi. It was occupied by the Germans Nov. 14, 1870, and again Jan. 21, 1871.