Amiens

French commune
nomcommune=Amiens
Saint Leu area in Amiens
région=Picardie
département=Somme
arrondissement=Amiens
canton=
insee=80021
cp=80000
maire=Gilles Demailly
mandat=2008-2014
intercomm=Communauté d'agglomération Amiens Métropole
longitude=2.299
latitude=49.892
alt moy=33 m
alt mini=14
alt maxi=106 m
hectares=4946
km²=49.46
sans=135,501
date-sans=1999
dens=2740
date-dens=1999

Amiens (IPA2|amjɛ̃) is a city and commune in northern France, 120 km north of Paris. It is the capital of the Somme department in Picardie.

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.

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.

ister cities

*flagicon|USA Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States of America
*flagicon|England Darlington, England Lake Cowichan

ights

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

*The Battle of Amiens was the opening phase of the Hundred Days Offensive in World War I.
*Jules Verne was a member of the city council of Amiens from 1888 to his death in 1905. He is buried in the Madeleine Cemetery.
*Clovis Trouille, 1889-1975, was born in Amiens and trained at the École des Beaux-Arts from 1905 to 1910.
*Amiens was the birthplace of Peter the Hermit and Odette Sansom (1912-95), a heroic member of the French Resistance.
*Édouard Lucas, 1842-1891, a French mathematician and inventor of the Tower of Hanoi game was born in Amiens.
*Amiens is celebrated for a treaty of peace between France and Great Britain concluded in 1802.
*Amiens is home to Amiens SC, a football team in Ligue 2, the second-highest league in French football.
*Amiens is also a setting in the video game "."
*Amiens was the setting for much of Sebastian Faulks wartime novel Birdsong
*Amiens hosted the 1913 French Grand Prix

See also

*Treaty of Amiens
*Battle of Amiens
*Operation Jericho

External links

* [http://www.amiens.fr/ Official website]
* "Hortillons": http://perso.club-internet.fr/claudine.bienaime/parcsjardins.htm#parchortillons
*
* [http://fhqed.free.fr/cath/cath_amiens.htm The Cathedral of Amiens colored !]
* [http://www.learn.columbia.edu/Mcahweb/Amiens.html Columbia University Media Center for Art History - Amiens Cathedral Website]
* [http://www.enjoyfrance.com/directory/Amiens.html Amiens] - Business Directory
* [http://www.images-en-somme.fr/bain-de-lumiere.php Pictures of Amiens and the Somme]
* [http://www.oldstratforduponavon.com/amiens Old Postcards of Amiens]
* [http://www.somerset3d.co.uk/logos%20&%20pictures/town%20&%20village%20pages/france/amiens1.html Photos of Amiens in 3d (Anaglyphs)]