The Cathedral and Tourist Office
The cathedral looms large over Amiens! Like all visitors, Jules Verne admired the majesty of this “superb specimen of 13th-century gothic art”, as he wrote in An Ideal City. He also referred to it in The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz:
“the cathedral [...], a 13th -century monument which combines the literary and the gothic. However, this cathedral has beautiful features, which are worthy of attention from experts, such as its façade flanked by two towers, its steeple over the transept measuring three hundred and fifteen feet high, its central doorway with its hugely detailed ornamental archways, its large rose window through which the setting sun’s rays shine and help to light up the large nave, and, finally, its rounded apse between the multiple flying buttresses.”
Place Notre-Dame has changed a lot over the centuries, and as events have unfolded. It does not look the same as it did in the 19th century when Jules Verne’s knew it, with its ancient houses and a narrower space in front of the building. After the Second World War, houses in the style of 13th century homes, adorned with 13th century features, were built opposite the cathedral and the square was cleared.
A Tourist Office is now located on the square.