Noyon

Noyon lies on the Oise northeast of Paris. An episcopal seat since the early Middle Ages, it received a communal charter in 1108, later confirmed by Philip Augustus. Its cathedral, built chiefly between 1145 and 1235 after a fire, is among the early Gothic churches of France. In 1516 the Treaty of Noyon brought a phase of the Italian Wars to a close, and the town hall was completed in 1520. Noyon was also the birthplace of John Calvin in 1509, linking the cathedral town to the Reformation that transformed European religious life.