St Vulfran Collegiate Church
Beffroi
'Abbeville' ('Abbegem' in Flemish) is a city in the
Picardie ''
région'', in the
North of
France.
Location
Abbeville is located on the
Somme River, 20 kilometres from its modern mouth in the
English Channel, and 45 kilometres northwest of
Amiens. In the medieval period, it was the lowest crossing point on the Somme and it was nearby that
Edward III's army crossed shortly before the
Battle of Crécy in
1346.
Administration
Abbeville was the chief town of the
former province of
Ponthieu. Today, it is one of the three ''
sous-préfectures'' of the
Somme ''
département''.
It is twinned with the town of
Burgess Hill in
West Sussex.
Prehistory
The name Abbeville has been adopted to name a category of early stone tools. These stone tools are also known as
handaxes. Various handaxes were found near Abbeville by
Jacques Boucher de Perthes during the
1830's and he was the first to describe the stones in detail, pointing out in the first publication of its kind, that the stones were chipped deliberately by early man, so as to form a tool. These earliest stone tools found in Europe were chipped on both sides so as to form a sharp edge, are now known as
Abbevillian handaxes or
bifaces. The earlier form of stone tools, not found in Europe is known as
Oldewan choppers. A more refined and later version of handaxe production was also found in the Abbeville/Somme River district. The more refined handaxe became known as the
Acheulean industry, named after
Saint Acheul, today a suburb of
Amiens.
History
Abbeville first appears in history during the
9th century. At that time belonging to the
abbey of
St Riquier, it was afterwards governed by the
Counts of Ponthieu. Together with that county, it came into the possession of the
Alençon and other French families, and afterwards into that of the
House of Castile, from whom by marriage it fell in
1272 to King
Edward I of England. French and English were its masters by turns till
1435 when, by the
treaty of Arras, it was ceded to the
Duke of Burgundy. In
1477 it was annexed by King
Louis XI of France, and was held by two illegitimate branches of the royal family in the 16th and 17th centuries, being in
1696 reunited to the crown. In 1514, the town saw the marriage of
Louis XII of France to
Mary Tudor, the daughter of
Henry VII of England.
Abbeville was fairly important in the
18th century, when the Van Robais Royal Manufacture (one of the first major factories in France) brought great prosperity (but some class controversy) to the town.
Voltaire, among others, wrote about it. He also wrote about a major incident of intolerance in which a young impoverished lord, the
Chevalier de la Barre, was executed there for impiety (supposedly because he did not
salute a procession for
Corpus Christi, though the story is far more complex than that and revolves around a mutilated cross.)
Historical population:
:1901: 18,519
:1906: 18,971
:1990: 24,588
Sights
The city was very picturesque until the early days of
the Second World War, when it was bombed mostly to rubble in one night by the Germans. The town overall is now mostly modern and rebuilt. Several of the town's attractions remain, including:
★
St. Vulfran's church, erected in the
15th,
16th and
17th centuries. The original design was not completed. The
nave has only two bays and the choir is insignificant. The facade is a magnificent specimen of the flamboyant
Gothic style, flanked by two Gothic towers.
See also
★
Abbevillian
References
★
----
''The following text, from a turn of the century
encyclopedia should be updated, wikified and incorporated into the above article:''
It lies in a pleasant and fertile valley, and is built partly on an island and partly on both sides of the river, which is canalized from this point to the estuary. The streets are narrow, and the houses are mostly picturesque old structures, built of wood, with many quaint gables and dark archways. The most remarkable building is the church of St Vulfran. Abbeville has several other old churches and an
Hotel de Ville, with a
belfry of the
13th century. Among the numerous old houses, that known as the Maison de
Francois I, which is the most remarkable, dates from the
16th century. There is a statue of
Admiral Courbet (d.
1885) by
Alexandre Falguière in the chief square. The public institutions include tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, and a communal college. Abbeville is an important industrial centre; in addition to its old-established manufacture of cloth, hemp-spinning, sugar-making, ship-building and
locksmiths' work are carried on; there is active commerce in grain, but the port has little trade.
External links
★
Official website (in French)
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