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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The monument to the dead of Saint-Astier was built between 1920 and 1922 to honour the soldiers of the First World War. Designed by architect A. Prodolliet and carved by A. Pugnet, it integrates into the retaining wall of the Victory Square, symbolically linking the two parts of the city. Its structure consists of a column flanked by rectangular foothills, surmounted by a stylized funeral urn, reflecting postwar commemorative aesthetics.

Classified as a Historic Monument since 2014, this monument also includes its garden and gate, all located on the public domain. Its location, at the corner of the square, makes it a central point of local memory. The accuracy of its location is considered satisfactory a priori (note 6/10), and there remains an architectural testimony of the tributes given to the victims of the conflict in the small French communes.

The work is part of a national context of reconstruction and mourning, where monuments to the dead became places of assembly and remembrance. In Saint-Astier, as elsewhere in the Dordogne, these buildings played a major social role, marking the urban space while honoring the sacrifices of the inhabitants. Their style, often sober and symbolic, was intended to convey a collective emotion rather than to celebrate a military victory.

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