On our recent visit to the sites of some of the major conflicts in World War 1, we went to the town of Albert in northern France. It is an attractive little place, and we had a very nice glass of wine in a small bar called Les Trois Pigeons. As we drank our wine, we talked about the things we had seen , the museums we had visited, the cemeteries we had paid our respects at… and some how it seemed fitting that the sacrifices made in the first war and the second which followed it meant we were able to sit free and enjoying our visit.
Albert became famous because of what happened to the statue on the top of its church. You can see in the background of my feature photo that the church has a gold cupola and golden statue surmounting it. The statue is of the Virgin Mary and was made by the sculptor Albert Roze. In the mural on the side of the building you can see what happened to the statue in 1915; it was hit by a German shell and tipped sideways but didn’t fall. It was said that whoever made the statue actually fall from its precarious position would lose the war… I think it may have been British who caused the statue to fall and disappear… however it is now resplendently back, standing above the town.
Lois Elsden 