From, Beautiful Buildings in France & Belgium, Including many which have been destroyed during the war. Reproductions in Colour and Monochrome from rare old Prints and Drawings, by and after Prout, Boys, Coney, W. Callow, David Roberts, C. Wild and others, with descriptive notes, by C. Harrison Townsend, F.R.I.B.A.; New York: The Hubbell Publishing Co., 1916; pp. 172-175.
ST. RIQUIER : THE ABBEY CHURCH
(G. Simonau)
HE church of the ancient Royal Abbey of St. Riquier shared in the many vicissitudes of the old town. It escaped the vandalism that wrought elsewhere so much harm to architectural monuments in 1793. It was finished in the Late Pointed style in 1539, but suffered from fire on two occasions, and its last rebuilding, in what, in the XVIIIth century, was understood to be the gothic style, did not, as Simonau’s drawing shows us, result in the greatest of successes.
As we have said, the town itself has suffered in its time at the hands of the Normans, 174 Burgundians, French, Germans, and English. In the attack upon it by the troops of Charles V. the women of the town joined valiantly in its defence, and the townspeople still tell legendary stories of a certain heroine, in particular, named Becquéville, who gallantly captured with her own hands one of the enemy’s flags.
Copyright © 2007 by Elfinspell