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ABBEVILLE

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 11 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ABBEVILLE , a See also:

town of See also:northern See also:France, See also:capital of an See also:arrondissement in the See also:department of See also:Somme, on the Somme, 12 M. from its mouth in the See also:English Channel, and 28 m. N.W. of See also:Amiens on the Northern railway. Pop. (1901) 18,519; (1906) 18,971. It lies in a pleasant and fertile valley, and is built partly on an See also:island and partly on both sides of the See also:river, which is canalized from this point to the See also:estuary. The streets are narrow, and the houses are mostly picturesque old structures, built of See also:wood, with many See also:quaint gables and dark archways. The most remarkable See also:building is the See also:church of St Vulfran, erected in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. The See also:original See also:design was not completed. The See also:nave has only two bays and the See also:choir is insignificant. The See also:facade is a magnificent specimen of the flamboyant See also:Gothic See also:style, flanked by two Gothic towers. Abbeville has several other old churches and an hotel-de-ville, with a See also:belfry of the 13th See also:century. Among the numerous old houses, that known as the Maison de See also:Francois Ie', which is the most remarkable, See also:dates from the 16th century.

There is a statue of See also:

Admiral See also:Courbet (d. 1885) in the See also:chief square. The public institutions include tribunals of first instance and of See also:commerce, a See also:board of See also:trade-arbitrators, and a communal See also:college. Abbeville is an important See also:industrial centre; in addition to its old-established manufacture of See also:cloth, See also:hemp-See also:spinning, See also:sugar-making, See also:ship-building and locksmiths' See also:work are carried on; there is active commerce in See also:grain, but the See also:port has little trade. Abbeville, the chief town of the See also:district of Ponthieu, first appears in See also:history during the 9th century. At that See also:time belonging to the See also:abbey of St Riquier, it was afterwards governed by the See also:counts of Ponthieu. Together with that See also:county, it came into the See also:possession of the See also:Alencon and other See also:French families, and after- ABBEY I I wards into that of the See also:house of Castille, from whom by See also:marriage it See also:fell in 1272 to See also:Edward I., See also:king of See also:England. French and English were its masters by turns till 1435 when, by the treaty of See also:Arras, it was ceded to the See also:duke of See also:Burgundy. In 1477 it was annexed by See also:Louis XI., king of France, and was held by two illegitimate branches of the royal See also:family in the 16th and 17th centuries, being in 1696 reunited to the See also:crown.

End of Article: ABBEVILLE

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ABBEY (Lat. abbatia; from Syr. abba, father)

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