Abbeville

Town in the Somme département, Picardy region, in northern France, 19 km/12 mi inland from the mouth of the River Somme and 40 km/25 mi northwest of Amiens; population (1999) 24,600. Abbeville has a large agricultural market; manufacturing industries include textiles, metal goods, and brewing. The town's 15th-century church of St-Vulfran is notable for its flamboyant facade and twin towers.

First mentioned in 881, the town is historically associated with two treaties, both of which have borne its name: the first was signed by Henry III of England and Louis IX of France in 1259; the second by Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France in 1527. The west front of the church of St-Vulfran has a doorway containing the French royal arms with a rampant lion, commemorating the marriage in 1515 of Louis XII, who was 52, to the young Mary Tudor of England, sister of Henry VIII.

In 1837 the geologist Jacques Boucher de Crèvecoeur de Perthes uncovered evidence of a 500,000-year-old tool industry at nearby gravel pits. This and subsequent discoveries confirmed the antiquity of the human species, and the term Abbevillian has been used by archaeologists to describe a specific period of development in the tool industry of Western Europe.

During World War I Abbeville was an important base for the British armies. The town suffered much damage during World War II and was extensively rebuilt. A 15-day carnival is held in Abbeville each year, starting on 22 July – the day of Saint-Marie Madeleine.

Abbeville

Town and administrative headquarters of Vermilion Parish in southern Louisiana, USA; population (2000) 11,900. It is situated on the Vermilion River, 27 km/17 mi south-southwest of Lafayette and 26 km/16 mi north of Vermilion Bay in the Gulf of Mexico. The town serves as a market centre for farms producing rice, sugar cane, and other crops, and a service centre amid natural gas fields. Dairy goods, seafood, and beef are also produced locally. Founded by a Capuchin missionary in 1843, Abbeville was settled by Acadians and Mediterranean immigrants, and is in the heart of Cajun Country. Originally known as La Chapelle, and modelled on a provincial French village, it was built around a chapel destroyed by fire in 1854.

Abbeville

Town and administrative headquarters of Abbeville County in northwest South Carolina, USA; population (1990) 5,800. Located 21 km/13 mi west of Greenwood, it is a trade and processing centre, and produces cotton textiles, cottonseed oil, and grain. John C Calhoun was born near here and practised law in Abbeville. The town is known as the Birthplace (or Cradle) of the Confederacy and can be considered the scene of its death as well; the first Secession meeting took place here on 22 November 1860, as did Jefferson Davis's last Confederate cabinet meeting on 2 May 1865. Abbeville's Opera House (1908) was once a famous vaudeville theatre.