Peronne - Saint-Jean-Baptiste

Peronne is a small town, situated in the Somme, a department of Northern France, that was the site of a series of battles during World War I. In 1916 the "Battle of the Somme", in which more than 1,000,000 men were wounded or killed, was fought in this area.

Saint-Jean-Baptiste was built in flamboyant Gothic style and got consecrated in 1525. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870/71) the structure got severely damaged by Prussian Fire. It got reconstructed after the war.

The church was taken over by the German army in October 1914 and a machine gun was installed on top of the tower. Four years later the church was in ruins, only the facade was still intact. It took decades to rebuilt Saint-Jean-Baptiste.