Douaumont Ossuary, Douaumont, France

The Douaumont ossuary is a memorial containing the remains of soldiers who died on the battlefield during the Battle of Verdun in World War I. During the 300 days of the Battle of Verdun (1916) approximately 230,000 men died out here. The battle became known in German as Die Hölle von Verdun (The Hell of Verdun), or in French as L'Enfer de Verdun, and was conducted on a battlefield covering less than 20 square kilometers.

The ossuary is a memorial containing the remains of both French and German soldiers who died on the Verdun battlefield. Through small outside windows, the skeletal remains of at least 130,000 unidentified combatants of both nations can be seen filling up alcoves at the lower edge of the building. On the inside of the ossuary building, the ceiling and walls are partly covered by plaques bearing names of French soldiers who fell during the Battle of Verdun. A few of the names are from fighting that took place in the area during World War II, as well as for veterans of the Indochina and Algerian Wars. The families of the soldiers that are recognized here by name contributed for those individual plaques. In front of the monument, and sloping downhill, lies the largest single French military cemetery of the First World War with 16,142 graves. It was inaugurated in 1923 by Verdun veteran André Maginot, who would later design the Maginot Line.

The tower is 46 meters high and has a panoramic view of the battlefields. The tower contains a bronze death-bell, weighing over 2 metric tons called Bourdon de la Victoire, which is sounded at official ceremonies. At the top of the tower is a rotating red and white 'lantern of the dead', which shines on the battlefields at night. The cloister is 137 meters long and contains 42 interior alcoves.

References:

Wikipedia

Cemeteries, mausoleums and burial places in France

User Reviews

Oxalis Tours (3 months ago)
The Ossuary of Douaumont contains the skeletal remains of about 130,000 unidentified French and German soldiers, who fell in the Battle for the town of Verdun between February and December 1916. The adjoining cemetery provides a final resting place for a further 16,000 soldiers. The battle for Verdun, which was never captured, cost 300,000 lives in all. Take the stairs to the top of the ossuary tower for a view over the vast battlefield, which is today mostly woodland. The nearby museum "Mémorial de Verdun" extensively documents this sad chapter in human history.

E W (4 months ago)
It's a tragic monument to visit, and fairly evocative, but it is bizarre and extremely off-putting that they have made it into a stereotypical tourist attraction and charge €6.50 to enter the ossuary and pay your respects. There are probably days where it is free to enter, but it is still odd to "commodify" it so much. On terms of commodification, it is also weird that all three main sites (the museum, the ossuary, and the fort) are on unrelated tickets - there is no combination ticket, so you're looking at something like €20 per adult to visit all three sites (€12 for the museum and €6.50 for the ossuary and around €4 for the fort). €6.50 for visiting the small ossuary (~15 minute visit if you don't watch the film, which is OK but only in French and only runs about 20 minutes) is the strangest and most off-putting. Paying for a museum is fine. I'd be fine donating and paying for the other sites, it is just extremely uncomfortable to make the ossuary a commodified tourist attraction.

Lara Kühnle (13 months ago)
Very impressive

Korben (13 months ago)
Unbelievably sad, moving, heartbreaking but still an absolute must-visit. Very well done. Come here and be thankful for the place and time we live in. Long live the EU, this fantastic peace project, whose value cannot be expressed in numbers.

Andy B (13 months ago)
Staggering. Difficult. Incomprehensible. Wrenching.

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Photo from Flickr, copyright Steve Clasper

Historic Site of the week

Kraków Cloth Hall

The Cloth Hall in Kraków dates to the Renaissance and is one of the city's most recognizable icons. It is the central feature of the main market square in the Kraków Old Town (listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1978).

The hall was once a major centre of international trade. Traveling merchants met there to discuss business and to barter. During its golden age in the 15th century, the hall was the source of a variety of exotic imports from the east – spices, silk, leather and wax – while Kraków itself exported textiles, lead, and salt from the Wieliczka Salt Mine.

Kraków was Poland's capital city and was among the largest cities in Europe already from before the time of the Renaissance. However, its decline started with the move of the capital to Warsaw in the very end of the 16th century. The city's decline was hastened by wars and politics leading to the Partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century. By the time of the architectural restoration proposed for the cloth hall in 1870 under Austrian rule, much of the historic city center was decrepit. A change in political and economic fortunes for the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria ushered in a revival due to newly established Legislative Assembly or Sejm of the Land. The successful renovation of the Cloth Hall, based on design by Tomasz Pryliński and supervised by Mayor Mikołaj Zyblikiewicz, Sejm Marshal, was one of the most notable achievements of this period.

The hall has hosted many distinguished guests over the centuries and is still used to entertain monarchs and dignitaries, such as Charles, Prince of Wales and Emperor Akihito of Japan, who was welcomed here in 2002. In the past, balls were held here, most notably after Prince Józef Poniatowski had briefly liberated the city from the Austrians in 1809. Aside from its history and cultural value, the hall still is still used as a center of commerce.

On the upper floor of the hall is the Sukiennice Museum division of the National Museum, Kraków. It holds the largest permanent exhibit of the 19th-century Polish painting and sculpture, in four grand exhibition halls arranged by historical period and the theme extending into an entire artistic epoch. The museum was upgraded in 2010 with new technical equipment, storerooms, service spaces as well as improved thematic layout for the display.

The Gallery of 19th-Century Polish Art was a major cultural venue from the moment it opened on October 7, 1879. It features late Baroque, Rococo, and Classicist 18th-century portraits and battle scenes by Polish and foreign pre-Romantics.

Do you know an ancient castle or magnificent church near you?

Why not share it with other people interested in history? You can add your own historic sites and attractions to SpottingHistory.com.

It's absolutely free, easy, and doesn't even need registration!

Upload data

Douaumont Ossuary

Address

Details

More Information

Rating

Interesting Sites Nearby

User Reviews

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Rhodes, The Island of Knights

Great Spa Towns of Europe

History of Guernsey & Jersey

Historic Site of the week

Kraków Cloth Hall

Looks like you are a history fan!