La Cité Souterraine de Naours

Top choice in Lille, Flanders & the Somme


Believed to date from the 3rd century AD, this extraordinary underground 'city' of quarried tunnels was started by the Romans and expanded over the centuries, incorporating 28 galleries and 300 rooms, including three chapels, multiple town squares, a bakery (with working ovens) and livestock barns. Only rediscovered in 1887, it was used by Allied forces in WWI, and as a Nazi HQ in WWII. The temperature below ground is a constant 9.5°C; bring a jacket (and a torch/flashlight).

Soldiers' graffiti from both wars can be seen throughout the cave system. Guided tours are in English and French. The site is 18km north of Amiens.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Lille, Flanders & the Somme attractions

1. Beffroi d'Amiens

9.62 MILES

Constructed between 1406 and 1410, Amiens' massive square belfry – a Unesco-listed monument – has a mid-18th-century top reaching 52m, which was rebuilt…

2. Cathédrale Notre Dame

9.69 MILES

A Unesco World Heritage Site, the largest Gothic cathedral in France (at 145m long) and the largest in the world by volume was begun in 1220 to house the…

3. Musée de Picardie

9.97 MILES

Housed in a dashing Second Empire structure (1855–67), the Picardy Museum contains archaeological exhibits, medieval art and Revolution-era ceramics. It's…

4. Tour Perret

9.98 MILES

One of Europe's earliest skyscrapers, the reinforced concrete Perret Tower (110m) faces the train station. It was designed by Belgian architect Auguste…

5. Maison de Jules Verne

10.2 MILES

Jules Verne (1828–1905) wrote some of his best-known works of brain-tingling – and eerily prescient – science fiction under the eaves of this turreted…

6. Australian National War Memorial

14.4 MILES

During WWI, 416,809 Australians – 8% of the country's population – volunteered for overseas military service; 46,000 met their deaths on the Western Front…

7. Musée Franco-Australien

15.68 MILES

Some 2400 Australian soldiers were killed or wounded in the April 1918 assault that wrested Villers-Bretonneux from German control. In the 1920s,…

8. Australian Corps Memorial Park

16.35 MILES

Adorned with a large bronze ‘Rising Sun’, the insignia of the Australian Imperial Force, this memorial 6.5km northeast of Villers-Bretonneux stands on the…