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Founded: 1209Category: Castles and fortifications in France
Historical period: Late Capetians (France)
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The first castle at this site of Château de Péronne was built at the end of the 9th century by Herbert I, Count of Vermandois, to replace a royal palace that had been burned down by Vikings in 884 AD. In 1191 the castle was again made a royal domain. In 1209 the castle was completely rebuilt by Philip II of France into a more-or-less pentagonal shaped stronghold flanked by circular towers and commanded by a large circular keep.
In 1536 Péronne Castle was besieged by the troops of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, led by the Count of Nassau. The siege ended without succes after 31 days but had destroyed the western part of the castle, including the keep. Later the castle was partly rebuilt and in the 17th century updated to withstand the advances in artillery.
The castle kept its military use up until 1914. In World War I, during the Battle of the Somme, Péronne Castle was almost completely destroyed. After the war it was partly rebuilt in red brick.
The Museum of the Great War (Historial de la Grande Guerre), located in the Château de Péronne, is one of the most important museums in Europe about WW I. It looks at various aspects of the war such as its causes, the everyday life of the soldiers and civilians, the social changes, the reconstruction of a battlefield, the tanks, the planes etc.
References:Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).