Abbeville is a French commune, sub-prefecture of the department of the Somme, in the Hauts-de-France region. With a population of 22,946 inhabitants in 2017, it is the 2nd commune of the department behind Amiens, and the 28th of the Hauts-de-France region. Former capital of Ponthieu, it was part of the province and then of the administrative region of Picardy until 2015. It is part of the regional natural park of the Baie de Somme Picardie Maritime.
Gothic Cathedral of St. Wulfram XV-XVII centuries
Cathedral of St. Wulfram is a former collegiate church located in Abbeville in the Somme department in France. Placed under the name of Saint Wulfram since the 12th century, it constitutes with the abbey of Saint-Riquier and the chapel of the Saint-Esprit de Rue one of the most beautiful specimens of flamboyant Gothic art in maritime Picardy. It is classified as a historical monument as a building on the 1840 list.
Origins of the monument
At the site of the
collegiate church of Saint-Wulfram was originally a parish church
under the name of Notre-Dame. In the 12th century, the Comte du
Ponthieu, having brought there the relics of Saint Wulfram of Sens,
also founded a chapter of twenty-six canons there. The church then
took the name of Saint-Vulfran collegiate church.
The 15th
and 16th century collegiate church
It was at the end of the
fifteenth century (1488) that the collegiate church was built at the
bottom of a valley with marshy soil, which was located at the time
near an arm of the Somme. The nave was built from 1488 to 1539 and
the choir between 1661 and 1663. Note, a particular orientation: the
facade does not open to the west, but to the north.
An era of
prosperity made it possible to realize the magnificent flamboyant
Gothic decoration of this church.
The chapter of
Saint-Wulfram wanted to own the most beautiful church in Ponthieu.
To do this, he requested financial support from the King of France,
the Count of Ponthieu and the city of Abbeville. The western part,
started on June 7, 1488, was almost completed in 1502, which allowed
the eastern facade to be cut.
On April 4, 1520, Jean Crétel,
master mason of Tours-en-Vimeu, was responsible for supervising the
construction of the building. The stones were extracted from the
cliffs of Beaumetz and Pont-Rémy.
In 1524, a mass was
celebrated in the second chapel. Until 1539, the pace of work
accelerated. Unfortunately, the site lacked resources, which stopped
the work. In the seventeenth century, an authorization was given to
a brotherhood to enlarge its chapel, which slightly reduced the area
of the collegiate church.
In 1532 the towers were fit to
accommodate the bells. In 1539, according to tradition, work was
interrupted when the two towers, the spans of the main nave, the
aisles and the six chapels were completed. A wall temporarily closed
the nave and aisles to the east.
The wars of religion and the
Spanish invasions brought the site to a halt. In 1621, the
brotherhood of haberdashery obtained the resumption of work for the
construction of the choir, the foundations of which had been started
in 1573. But it was not until the beginning of Louis XIV's personal
reign, from 1661 to 1663, that the choir was completed. In 1691, the
three upper windows of the apse were decorated with stained glass.
It was therefore not until the end of the seventeenth century that
the eastern part of the collegiate church was completed.
The
collegiate church during the contemporary era
During the
Revolution, the Saint-Wulfram church became the temple of Reason
and, on June 8, 1794, a feast was celebrated there in honor of the
Supreme Being.
The building is classified as a historical
monument. It appears on the List of historical monuments of 1840. In
1852, an alarming report by the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc led,
the building being communal property, the mayor of Abbeville to
prohibit the exercise of worship there. Restoration campaigns began
in the 1860s to ensure the solidity of the building. The diocesan
architect François Céleste Massenot restored the chapels and the
aisles of the nave.
At the start of the Second World War,
during the Battle of France on May 20, 1940, Abbeville was shelled
by German artillery, which started a violent fire. He destroyed a
large part of the city and the collegiate church. The vault
collapsed, only the beginning of the nave, the towers and the facade
remained standing.
The building was restored and returned to
worship in 1998.
Main facade
It rises on three floors with balusters. Three portals give access
to three naves. A large bay illuminates the central nave between the
twin bays of the towers. The carved gable is framed by two towers.
The abundant sculpture around the portals does not strictly speaking
follow a coherent story, it is the reflection of the devotion of the
corporations which financed its realization.
Among the
statues on the portals, we recognize, in the center, from left to
right, Saint Wulfram, Saint Nicholas with the three children, Saint
Firmin, patron of the coopers who donated the statue, and finally
Saint Germain the Scotsman. On the tympanum, the statue of Christ
has disappeared but the Trinity sits at the top of the gable. The
arches depict episodes from the life of Christ. Scenes from the life
of the Virgin and figures of apostles were carved on the wooden
doors.
On the north portal, we recognize, on the left, the
legend of Saint Eustace represented on the tympanum framed by a lion
who and a wolf who carry his children; on the left, we see him
thrown into the sea.
On the south portal, we recognize the
statues representing the Assumption of the Virgin, Marie-Cléophas
and Salomé with their children, all dressed in sumptuous Renaissance
costumes. These statues executed in 1501 are the work of Pierre
Lheureux, they were offered by the corporation of mercers.
The bell towers rise 55.80 m above the ground.
Side
façades
The side façades are reinforced by piers and flying
buttresses for the first part of the nave. The western walls of the
unfinished transept are still visible with their flamboyant decor.
The eastern part of the building, with the extension of the nave and
aisles, as well as the choir, reinforced with buttresses, was built
in the seventeenth century, in a much more sober style.
The nave
The nave, in its part of the fifteenth
century, is relatively narrow (9.10 m wide), the vaults culminate at
31.7 m which gives an impression of high elevation (height / width
ratio of 3.5 to 2, 8 for Amiens Cathedral). The large Gothic arcades
rest on diamond-shaped pillars with prismatic moldings. The blind
triforium is decorated with a balustrade and surmounted by high
windows. The ribbed vaults with liernes and tiercerons are decorated
with carved keys hanging from the arms of the donors who financed
the construction of the building. It was extended in the seventeenth
century in a much more sober style. The main portal is surmounted by
a tribune. The 17th-century wooden preaching pulpit was restored and
placed back in the nave in 2002.
The aisles
In each of the
aisles are three chapels.
In the south aisle:
the
Saint-Jean-Baptiste chapel where there is an altarpiece of the
baptism of Jesus, in polychrome stone, the original of which dates
from the Renaissance. The work was redone in 1849 by the Duthoit
brothers. Below the statue of God the Father, on a phylactery was
engraved the inscription: “Tu es filius meus dilectus”;
the
chapel of Saint-Yves and Sainte-Anne has an altar dedicated to Saint
Anne whose altarpiece from the beginning of the sixteenth century is
kept at the Boucher-de-Perthes Museum. Above the altarpiece are the
statues of Saint Nicholas, Saint Andrew and Saint Catherine of
Alexandria on both sides. In front of the altarpiece, a painting of
Saint Sebastian, dating from the seventeenth century, is a work by a
pupil of the Italian painter Guido Reni. The painting and its golden
frame were restored in 2013.
the Saint-Quiriace chapel where the
18th century Christ descended from the cross is located in a fire.
The Art Deco style murals are the work of Victor-Ferdinand
Bourgeois, dating from 1931.
Also in the south aisle:
the
18th century marble baptismal font;
a wooden statue of
Saint-Jean-Baptiste dating from the sixteenth century, attached to a
pillar;
a painting by Charles Gleyre entitled "Saint John
receives the vision of the Apocalypse".
In the north aisle:
the Saint-Louis chapel, built in 1492 by the d'Ailly family,
preserves a polychrome stone altarpiece representing the Nativity
(end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century). This altarpiece
was largely redone in the 19th century by the Duthoit brothers. It
was restored in 1994 by the Arcams workshops. It is framed by
pilasters and columns adorned with lush carvings and designs. The
whole is surmounted by three statues representing Christ surrounded
by Saint Peter and Saint Paul. A statue of the Virgin and Child, in
painted wood from the 17th century, has been placed in this chapel;
the Saints-Anges et Saint-Luc chapel preserves a 16th century
bas-relief, restored in 1843, representing "The Adulterous Woman"
and a 19th century altarpiece, made by the Duthoit brothers,
representing the Last Judgment. These scenes carved in plaster have
been placed in a seventeenth century frame;
the Saint-Firmin
chapel in which there is a painting representing "Christ on the
Mount of Olives", the work of Abbeville, Hermine Deheirain. This
painting was donated to the collegiate church by King Louis-Philippe
I, in 1837.
The choir
The choir was built in the
seventeenth century, its woodwork disappeared during the bombing of
May 20, 1940. It is vaulted with wood. The windows are decorated
with stained glass windows by William Einstein. The high altar known
as the “altar of Saint Wulfram” was made by the Duthoit brothers. It
is decorated with sculpted scenes retracing the life of the saint.
The painted oak bust-reliquary of Saint Wulfram, from the 17th
century, was restored and replaced in the choir of the collegiate
church in 2013. A Christ on the cross, in polychrome wood, from the
beginning of the 15th century, a statue of the Virgin à l'Enfant sur
le serpent, from the 17th century, a lectern in the shape of an 18th
century eagle complete the decoration of the choir.
A choir
organ was placed in the collegiate church in 1961, replacing the
tribune organ destroyed in 1940.
Belfry of the XIII century, included in the UNESCO World Heritage
List. Currently, the building is home to the museum of Jacques
Boucher de Perth, a renowned archaeologist and native of Abbeville.
Finds of tools typical of the Early Paleolithic, made by him near
the city in 1839-1848, gave the name to the Abbeville culture.
Gothic churches of the Holy Sepulcher, Notre Dame and Saint Gilles
of the 15th-19th centuries
Church of St. Jacques 1868-1876 in the
neo-Gothic style
The building of the municipal theater in 1914
Chateau Bagatelle of the 18th century with a park
The first mention of Abbeville dates back to the 9th century. At
that time, it belonged to the Abbey of Saint-Riquier, then went to
the Counts of Ponthier. Subsequently, along with the entire county
of Ponthier, several times changed his lords from noble French
houses, until he moved to the Castilian house and became part of the
dowry of Eleanor of Castile, when in 1272 she married the English
king Edward I.
Until 1435, the city was alternately owned by
England and France, until, according to the Treaty of Arras,
Abbeville and other cities on the Somme fell to the Dukes of
Burgundy. In 1477, Abbeville was annexed by Louis XI and has
remained in French hands ever since. In 1514, the wedding ceremony
of King Louis XII and Mary Tudor, daughter of the English king Henry
VII, took place here.
Abbeville gained importance in the 18th
century, when the royal Van Robais manufactory was opened here, one
of the first large industrial enterprises in France. Voltaire wrote
about her, as well as about the cases of religious intolerance here.
In particular, he mentioned the story of a poor young man, the
Chevalier de la Barra, who was executed in Abbeville in 1766 on
charges of impiety (according to Voltaire, he just did not properly
welcome the religious procession, although a number of witnesses
considered the story more complicated).
Rear Admiral Amedey
Courbet was born in Abbeville, who became a national hero of France
during the Franco-Chinese war of 1884-1885. Courbet died in the
Pescadores in 1885, shortly after the end of the war, and was buried
in Abbeville. The central square of the city was renamed into the
square of Admiral Courbet, and a monument to the admiral in the
Baroque style was erected in the center of the square. During the
Second World War, it was seriously damaged.
On September 12,
1939, an Anglo-French conference was held in Abbeville, at which it
was decided to refuse Poland's assistance in the fight against the
Germans. After five years - in September 1944 - it was just
liberated by the Poles and a tank division under the command of
General Stanislav Machk.
In 1940, German troops under the
command of von Kleist reached the English Channel in the Abbeville
region, cutting off British-French forces in northern France. This
marked the turning point of the Battle of France and led to the
defeat of the Allied forces.