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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Péronne, built between 1509 and 1525 in flamboyant Gothic style, replaces a chapel attested as early as 1101. Consecrated in 1525, it was the only of the six pre-revolutionary churches in Peronne to survive after 1789, thanks to the law limiting to one parish building per commune. Its bell tower, added in 1540, dominates a structure in hallenkirche (church-hall) with three equal height naves, characteristic rare in Picardia. In the 17th century, it houses a brotherhood of Mount Carmel and houses works by local painter Charles-Henri Michel, including the Baptism of Christ (1854).

The French Revolution changed its status: closed during the Terror, it was restored to worship in 1795 and restored in 1829. The 19th century marked its artistic enrichment, with retables classified (1907) and wrought 18th century iron grids (classified in 1901), offered by a criminal lieutenant in 1775. The 1870 war partially damaged the Prussian siege, but it was the First World War that destroyed it almost entirely. The bell tower was occupied by the Germans in 1914, and its stained glass windows were blown in 1916. In 1918, German explosives reduced the building to its walls, with the loss of Saint Fursy's relics.

The reconstruction (1927–1932), led by the chief architect of the Henry Moreau Historic Monuments, reuses 70% of the original stones and sculptures. The cost exceeds 6 million gold francs, financed by a diocesan cooperative. The stained glass windows, signed Jacques Gruber and Louis Barillet, and the Cavaillé-Coll organs (1932) completed this renaissance. The Second World War again damaged the stained glass windows (1944) and the bell tower, repaired in the postwar period. Today, the church, the centre of the Catholic parish of Peronne, attracts 5,000 visitors annually and remains a symbol of heritage resilience.

The interior preserves remarkable elements: a 1601 mural, La Bonne Mort, restored in 2013; funerary monuments of the 16th-17th centuries (Jean Levesque, Jean Bauduin); and a carved group of Saint Fursy (XVIIth-15th century). The four bells, melted in 1931 by Georges Farnier, bear the names of the city councillors of the time. In 2024, a new stage and altar, made by local artisans, were consecrated by Bishop Gérard Le Stang, marking the cultural continuity of this two-hundredth anniversary monument.

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