Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Douaumont Ossuary (French: Ossuaire de Douaumont) [1] is a memorial containing the skeletal remains of soldiers who died on the battlefield during the Battle of Verdun in World War I. It is located in Douaumont-Vaux , France , within the Verdun battlefield, and immediately next to the Fleury-devant-Douaumont National Necropolis . [ 2 ]
Underneath, burial vaults hold the bones of the unidentified dead. The construction of the ossuary was organized by a committee led by the Bishop of Verdun, who collected subscriptions within France and internationally. Around the exterior of the building are displayed the coats of arms of all the cities that donated money towards its construction.
The Verdun Memorial is a war memorial to commemorate the Battle of Verdun, fought in 1916 as part of the First World War. It is situated on the battlefield, close to the destroyed village of Fleury-devant-Douaumont in the département of Meuse in north-eastern France .
The Ossuary at Verdun was the centre for many veterans pilgrimages in the 1920s, one of the better known groups being the Fêtes de la Bataille, which travelled to the site to undertake a vigil, processions and lay wreaths. [161] These pilgrimages were typically low-key and avoided military symbolism or paraphernalia. [161]
The Battles of Artois were as costly in French lives as the better-known Battle of Verdun. As with numerous other sites across France, Notre Dame de Lorette became a national necropolis, sacred ground containing the graves of French and Colonial fallen as well as an ossuary, containing the bones of those whose names were not marked.
An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the skeletal remains are removed and placed in an ossuary ("os" is "bone" in Latin [1]).
Construction work started in 1885 near the village of Douaumont, on some of the highest ground in the area and the fort was continually reinforced until 1913. It has a total surface area of 30,000 m 2 (36,000 sq yd) and is approximately 400 m (440 yd) long, with two subterranean levels protected by a steel reinforced concrete roof 12 m (13 yd) thick resting on a sand cushion.
The fort is situated on some of the highest ground in the area. At the very beginning of the Battle of Verdun (February 1916) and due to French unpreparedness, the fort was easily captured by a small German raiding party. Douaumont was later recaptured by the French Army in October 1916, after major casualties on both sides.