Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Monument to sailors who died for France during the First World War is a stone work by Kersanton located in Plougonvelin, on the Pointe Saint-Mathieu (Finistère). It consists of a 17-metre-high vertical massif, crowned with a colossal bust of woman in mourning cap, symbolizing the pain of survivors. The four sides of the monument carry bas-reliefs evoking the commitment of the sailors of the Royal, Merchant Marine and Fisheries to defend the homeland.

Inaugurated on 12 June 1927, this monument is the first element of the National Memorial to the sailors dead for France, completed in the early 2000s by the Esplanade of French memory and the Cenotaph to the sailors. Its construction was proposed by Georges Leygues, Minister of the Navy, and Admiral Émile Guépratte, Member of Parliament for Finistère, to honour the sailors who had disappeared during the war. The law authorizing its construction was promulgated on 26 July 1923 by President Alexandre Millerand, and its realization was entrusted to the Finnish sculptor René Quillivic (1879–1969).

The monument, classified as Historic Monument in 2015, dominates an emblematic site near the Abbey of Saint-Mathieu, at a crossroads of maritime routes. Its location, carved facing the ocean, underscores its role of collective memory and glorification of maritime sacrifices. Local materials, such as the Kersanton stone, and Breton symbols (such as the Léonard cap) anchor the work in the regional heritage.

Today, the site also includes more recent commemorative spaces dedicated to all sailors who died in service, extending its historical reach well beyond the First World War. The monument remains a place of recollection and a major artistic testimony of the inter-war period in Brittany.

External links