Basilique Notre-Dame de Brebières

The Basilique Notre-Dame de Brebières in Albert, a small town near Amiens, was built in 1895 in the neo-Byzantine style and holds the rank of Basilica minor, making it one of northern France's notable Marian pilgrimage churches. During the First World War, German artillery damaged the bell tower so severely that its gilded statue of the Virgin tilted to a near-horizontal angle — British soldiers called it the 'Leaning Virgin' and spread a superstition that whichever side toppled it would lose the war. In April 1918, British forces ultimately shot the statue down themselves to deny German observers a landmark. The church and tower were fully reconstructed after the Armistice and are now listed as a Monument historique. The basilica today draws both Catholic pilgrims and visitors tracing the Somme battlefields, with the golden Virgin statue once again presiding over the town skyline.