From the royal châteaux of the Oise to the fortified churches of Thiérache, which surprise visitors with their towers and watch-turrets, Picardy is rich in historic monuments: it is the second region in France with the largest number of listed monuments. It was in Picardy, on the doorstep of Paris, that the great cathedrals of the Middle Ages were born. Amiens cathedral, a UNESCO world heritage site, is twice the size of Notre-Dame in Paris.
Every century has left its mark on Picardy. The Somme is the cradle of prehistoric and gallo-roman archaeology, from the discovery of the Saint-Acheul site in Amiens to the invention of aeriel archaeology by Roger Agache.
Modern history has also endowed the region with an exceptionally rich heritage both in terms of culture and religion. Among those towns classified with the "art and history" label, stand Amiens, Laon, Noyon and Soissons, and also Beauvais, Compiègne, Saint-Quentin and Senlis.
Picardy is the cradle of France, since the Carolingian dynasty and the first Valois kings until the 2nd Empire. Clovis celebrated this event by breaking a famous vase in Soissons. Dotted with coronation towns such as Laon and Noyon, holiday towns such as Pierrefonds, Chantilly and Compiègne, wedding towns and towns from which people left on crusades such as Abbeville, Picardy also carefully preserves the memory of the places in which Jeanne d'Arc was held as a prisoner between her arrest in Compiègne and her trial in Rouen while passing through Saint-Valery-sur-Somme.
But this land blessed by kings was also the pioneer of communal rights, represented by the building of town halls and belfries, including that of Saint-Quentin and those of Abbeville, Amiens, Doullens, Lucheux, Rue and Saint-Riquier, which have recently been listed by UNESCO. "The first direct and determined step towards freedom was taken by the towns of Picardy, they are the ones which showed the way and set the example whereby men could rule themselves as equals." states P. Lami in The History of Picardy.
As Christian Sutcliffe, a guide-lecturer in Amiens, "the greatest period in Picardy is the Middle Ages with the gothic cathedral of Laon, the grandmother of all cathedrals." Monastic architecture is also widespread. This expert mentions in particular the abbey church of Saint-Riquier and the abbey of Corbie in the Somme, and that of Chaalis near Ermenonville in the Oise Department, which were beacons throughout Europe.
The Thiérache area offers an exceptional collection of approximately sixty fortified churches dating from the 16th and 17th centuries. The pride and joy of local inhabitants, sometimes restaurateurs offer to show them to visitors after the meal has ended... This land also witnessed great battles, from Crécy to the fierce fighting of the Somme in 1916 and the Chemin des Dames in the Aisne Department in 1917 as well as the wars against the Spanish soldiers of Charles V.
While the diversity of its history, towns and monuments makes Picardy stand out, it is also the breeding ground of great men. Among such men there is of course Jules Verne, whose home is a fabulous place to discover in Amiens, and also Camille Claudel, Alexandre Dumas, Jean de la Fontaine, Condorcet, Camille Desmoulins, Choderlos de Laclos, Quentin de La Tour, Henri Matisse, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Calvin…
Their home towns keep their memory alive in those places which complement the antiques and fine art of museums, like that of Chantilly, and also Amiens, Beauvais, Compiègne, Noyon and even Saint-Quentin. Wherever you go, the region's heritage is on display in sometimes unusual museums such as the archery museum in Crépy en Valois, the Mother-of-pearl museum in Méru, historical figurines in Compiègne, the Caudron brothers in Rue... The list of surprises is so long that weekends are not enough to make all the discoveries possible along the historic routes of Picardy.
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