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Origin and history

The Saint-Rémi d'Amiens church, located in the Somme department, replaces a first parish church destroyed after the French Revolution. The current neo-Gothic building was initiated in 1889 by parish priest Louis Eugène Debeaumont and according to the plans of architect Paul Delefortrie. The construction, interrupted in 1891 for financial reasons, saw only the choir and transept complete. The organs, inaugurated in 1900, were rebuilt by Salomon Van Bever from an older instrument dating back to 1842, originally installed in the church of ropes.

After World War I, architect Pierre Ansart completed the building by adding a sacristy, while his son, the glassmaker Gérard Ansart, restored or created new stained glass windows. These illustrate the life of Saint Remi in the abside, the history of the triforium ropes, and the twelve apostles in the high windows. The church was inscribed in the historical monuments on 17 August 2001, with its sacristy and the remains of the former nave of the convent. Today it is entrusted to the Polish Catholic community of Amiens.

The interior houses remarkable heritage elements, including the tomb of Nicolas de Lannoy and Magdelaine de Mutterel (1631), carved by Nicolas Blasset and inspired by royal tombs. This tomb, with a double representation (priants and transis), is a unique case in the North of France. The church also preserves a Virgin with Child offered by the Grand Condé after the Battle of Rocroi (1643), classified as a historical monument in 1904, as well as 17th-century marble bas-reliefs, such as The Last Supper and The Adoration of the Magi, from the Abbey of Corbie and classified in 1907.

The stained glass windows, made by Maison Hutin de Reims and restored by Gérard Ansart, combine hagiographic narratives with religious symbols. The organ, rebuilt in 1900, uses the buffet and elements of the original instrument of the Basilian brothers (1842). Several movable objects, including bas-reliefs of the 16th–15th centuries and a reliquary of the Saint Larme of Selincourt, have been protected since 1982. The church thus bears witness to an artistic and spiritual heritage combining neo-Gothic, medieval heritage and Franciscan memory.

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