I'm currently looking at the Arduino Pro Mini schematic and have noticed that the pin AREF (analogue reference) is connected to GND via a 0.1uF capacitor, as shown below:

I have done some research and read this great explanation into AREF and now understand its purpose as a voltage reference. Seeings that in this situation AREF is connected to GND, I would have thought that this would make the reference voltage 0 V, therefore when an analogue pin is read, it would always state 1023, as described in this post. Knowing this why would Team Arduino do this? Is this for internal AREF, or something else?

In addition, what would the purpose of the capacitor be?

A full schematic of the Arduino Pro Mini can be sourced from here.