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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Silvin de Matourt, located in the western suburbs of Abbeville (Somme, Hauts-de-France), is a Catholic religious building founded in the 11th century, making it the oldest church in the city. His unique term in the diocese of Amiens is dedicated to Saint Silvin, a hermit who died in the diocese of Therouanne in the ninth century, whose cult has spread since the Carolingian era. A relic of the saint, preserved in the church, once attracted an annual pilgrimage in September, while a local tradition, the blessing of St.Antoine's breads (until 1988), showed its spiritual and community vitality.

The building has undergone many changes: the nave was enhanced and the bell tower raised in the 14th century, while chapels were added in the 15th and 17th centuries (chapelle de la Vierge, chapel Saint Peter). During the Revolution, the church was closed and sold as a national property (1791), before being bought by the Tillette family of Clermont-Tonnerre, who preserved it until its transfer to the municipality of Abbeville in 1875. Architectural transformations, such as the ogival windows or the Gothic structure of the choir, reflect these successive epochs.

The history of the church is documented by local historians such as Ernest Prarond (19th century), who described its Romanesque and Gothic characteristics, or Roger Rodière, who analyzed his masonry in opus incertum (mix of flint and moellons). Archives also reveal its medieval parish role, its attachment to the chapter of Amiens as early as 1197, and its connection to an ancient domus seigneurial of Matrort, destroyed in 1360 to avoid an English occupation. After restorations in the 19th century, the present interview is carried out by the association Les Amis de Saint-Sylvin, relaunched in 2014 after a flight of statuettes in 2013.

Among the remarkable elements, the 12th-century bell tower preserves a Romanesque swimming pool and a bell of 1839, while the Gothic choir (15th to 16th centuries) houses 19th-century stained glass windows and a tombstone of the Tillette (1620). The chapel of Saint Peter, rebuilt in 1879, houses their family vault. The church, now municipal property, thus illustrates nine centuries of religious, seigneurial and community history in Picardia.

The primary sources (cardulars of Amiens, Red Book of the Echevinage) confirm its seniority, while the works of Prarond and Rodière specify its architectural evolution. Despite historiographical shortcomings, the church remains a major testimony of the medieval Abbevilloi heritage, marked by seigneurial rights ( funerary liter), popular practices (pilgrimages, blessings) and resilience to revolutionary upheavals.

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