What to See in Amiens - Top Sights and Attractions

Gothic cathedral with ornate sculptures. The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Amiens, or simply Amiens Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic church. The cathedral is the seat of the Bishop of Amiens. It is situated on a slight ridge overlooking the River Somme in Amiens, the administrative capital of the Picardy region of France, some 120 kilometres north of Paris.

The cathedral was built almost entirely between 1220 and c. 1270, a remarkably short period of time for a Gothic cathedral, giving it an unusual unity of style. Amiens is a classic example of the High Gothic style of Gothic architecture. It also has some features of the later Rayonnant style in the enlarged high windows of the choir, added in the mid-1250s.

Its builders were trying to maximize the internal dimensions in order to reach for the heavens and bring in more light. As a result, Amiens cathedral is the largest in France, 200,000 cubic metres (260,000 cu yd), large enough to contain two cathedrals the size of Notre Dame of Paris.

The cathedral has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981. Although it has lost much of its original stained glass, Amiens Cathedral is renowned for the quality and quantity of early 13th-century Gothic sculpture in the main west façade and the south transept portal, and a large quantity of polychrome sculpture from later periods inside the building.^[1]

Museum with archaeological finds and art. The Musée de Picardie is the main museum of Amiens and Picardy, in France. It is located at 48, rue de la République, Amiens. Its collections include artifacts ranging from prehistory to the 19th century, and form one of the largest regional museums in France.

As an institution, the museum was founded as the Musée Napoléon in 1802 (the year of the Treaty of Amiens). However, the current building that houses the museum is more recent, being purpose-built as a regional museum between 1855 and 1867. The Second Empire style building was designed by architects Henri Parent and Arthur-Stanislas Diet. It was built thanks to the Société des Antiquaires de Picardie, keen to give the city somewhere to house the collections the society had gathered over decades. A prototype for other French regional museums, it was France's first building constructed exclusively for the purpose of conservation and exhibition of artworks.^[4]

Early modernist tower with 27 floors. Tour Perret is a 29-storey, 110 m residential skyscraper in Amiens, France. It has been described as France's first skyscraper, and was registered as a historic monument in 1975.

Its building was part of a large scale reconstruction project helmed by architect Auguste Perret in the Place Alphone-Fiquet neighborhood, which also involved a rebuild of the nearby railway station. The design phase started as early as 1942, following extensive damages suffered by downtown Amiens during World War II. Perret intended it as an office building before authorities overruled him.

Originally measuring 104 metre, Tour Perret was the highest, and the first 100-plus metre skyscraper built in France, although it was not the highest in Western Europe, as it has sometimes been written. The building actually fell slightly short of its intended height as its topmost part, a belfry adorned with a monumental clock, was never built due to delays and cost overruns.

In 2005, the tower was finally completed with a so-called Sablier de lumière (English: Hourglass of Light) designed by architect Thierry Van de Wyngaert. It is a cube made of 192 active glass pannels whose transparency can be electrically adjusted, illuminated by twelve circular neon lamps which project different colors depending on the time of day. In 2017, the lighting system was redesigned and simplified for cost and practicality. The cube's addition brought the height of the building up to 110 metre.^[5]