Amiens

Commune of Amiens
Coat of Arms of the City of Amiens Amiens quartier saint leu canaux 200503.jpg
Saint Leu area in Amiens
Location
Amiens (France)
Amiens
Amiens
Administration
Country France
Region Picardie
Department Somme
Arrondissement Amiens
Intercommunality Communauté d'agglomération Amiens Métropole
Mayor Gilles Demailly
(2008-2014)
Statistics
Elevation 14–106 m
(avg. 33 m)
Land area¹ 49.46 km²
Population²
(1999)		 135,501
 - Density 2740/km² (1999)
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code 80021/ 80000
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.
France

Amiens (IPA: [amjɛ̃]) is a city and commune in northern France, 120 km north of Paris. It is the capital of the Somme department in Picardie.

Contents

History

The Paleolithic culture named Acheulean was named for its first identified site, in Saint-Acheul, a suburb of Amiens. Amiens, the Roman Samarobriva, was the central settlement of the Ambiani, one of the principal tribes of Gaul, who were issuing coinage, probably from Amiens, in the first century BC. By tradition, it was at the gates of Amiens that Saint Martin of Tours, at the time still a Roman soldier, shared his cloak with a naked beggar. Saint Honorius (Honoré) (d. 600 AD) was the seventh bishop of the city.

Amiens was later the capital of Picardy.

The Battle of Amiens was the opening phase of the Hundred Days Offensive in World War I. This offensive led to the armistice which ended the war.

During World War II, on 18 February 1944, Nazi-occupied Amiens was the site of Operation Jericho, a British operation which freed 258 people by bombing Amiens prison.

Sister cities

Sights

The cathedral in Amiens

Amiens Cathedral (a World Heritage Site) is the tallest of the large 'classic' Gothic churches of the 13th century and is the largest in France of its kind. After a fire destroyed the former cathedral, the new nave was begun in 1220 - and finished in 1247. Amiens Cathedral is notable for the coherence of its plan, the beauty of its three-tier interior elevation, the particularly fine display of sculptures on the principal façade and in the south transept, and the labyrinth, and other inlays of its floor. It is described as the "Parthenon of Gothic architecture," and by John Ruskin as "Gothic, clear of Roman tradition and of Arabian taint, Gothic pure, authoritative, unsurpassable, and unaccusable."

Amiens is also known for the hortillonnages, gardens on small islands in the marshland along the Somme River, surrounded by a grid network of man-made canals.

Miscellaneous

See also

External links

Blason département fr Somme.svg  This Somme geographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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