ALBERT CHURCH IN APRIL, 1917.
A Visit to the Ruins—The Basilica
Arriving by the Rue d'Amiens, tourists will see the cascade, on the right behind a ruined factory.
ALBERT CHURCH IN 1919.
RUINED WORKS ON RIVER ANCRE, AND CASCADE.
Follow the Rue d'Amiens to the Place d'Armes, in which stand the ruins of the Church of Nôtre-Dame-de-Brebière. Before the war as many as 80,000 people made pilgrimages to this basilica yearly, to see the ancient statue of the Virgin, discovered in the neighbourhood by a shepherd, in the Middle-Ages.
The church—a brick-and-stone construction in the Roman-Byzantine style—was built at the end of the nineteenth century. The brick belfry, over 200 feet high, was surmounted by a copper dome, on which stood a gilt statue of the Virgin, sixteen feet high, with the infant Jesus in her outstretched arms. The body of the church measured 276 feet in length and 68 feet in height, and was very richly decorated.