is a city and
Commune in the north of
France , 120 km north of
Paris . It is the ''
Préfecture '' (
Capital city) of
Somme ''
Département .'' It is considered the ''
Picard e'' capital of France.
The Paleolithic culture named
Acheulean was named for its first identified site, in Saint-Acheul, a suburb of Amiens. Amiens, the Roman '', 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 BCE. By tradition, it was at the gates of Amiens that Saint
Martin Of Tours , at the time still a Roman soldier, divided his cloak with a naked beggar.
Saint Honorius (Honoré) (d. 600 CE) 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.
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 facade 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 ,'' garden on small islands in the marshland along the
Somme River , surrounded by a grid network of man-made canals.
