The Basilica of Saint-Quentin in northern France was built in stages from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, with the apse completed in 1205 and the nave in 1456. It is 436 feet (133 meters) long, 138 feet (42 meters) wide across the nave, and its spire rises 269 feet (82 meters). The style is Gothic with flamboyant details. Pope Pius IX named it a minor basilica in 1876.
World War I devastated it. A bomb dropped on the railway station in 1916 broke seven large windows, a fire destroyed the roof in August 1917, and by October 1918 the central nave vault had collapsed. German troops had also drilled 93 holes in the walls and pillars for explosives, but an engineer was arrested before he could detonate them.
Emile Brunet led reconstruction, and the basilica reopened for worship in 1956.
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