The Somme Albert wall painting
During World War I, the statue of Mary and the infant Jesus - designed by sculptor Albert Roze and dubbed the "Golden Virgin" - on top of the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Brebières was hit by a shell on January 15, 1915, and slumped to a near-horizontal position, where however it remained until further shelling in 1918 destroyed the tower. The Germans said that whoever made the statue fall would lose the war, and a number of legends surrounding the "Leaning Virgin" developed among German, French, and British soldiers. The Leaning Virgin became an especially familiar image to the thousands of British soldiers who fought at the Battle of the Somme (1916), many of whom passed through Albert, which was situated three miles from the front lines. As "The Golden Virgin" it provided Henry Williamson with the title of the sixth book in his fictionalised autobiographical sequence, A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight. The book describes events surrounding the Battle of the Somme from a soldier's Battle of the Somme was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British and French against the Germans. It took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on either side of the River Somme and its tributary the L'Ancre in northern France. The battle was one of the largest of World War I, in which more than 1,000,000 men were wounded or killed. Today the area has many cemeteries and memorials on the sites of different parts of the battle.
Size: 2592px × 3873px
Location: The Somme France
Photo credit: © CHRIS LEWINGTON / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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