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Saint-Michel d'Ornes Church dans la Meuse

Patrimoine classé
Patrimoine religieux
Eglise
Meuse

Saint-Michel d'Ornes Church

    D24 Horgne
    55150 Ornes
Église Saint-Michel dOrnes
Église Saint-Michel dOrnes
Église Saint-Michel dOrnes
Église Saint-Michel dOrnes
Église Saint-Michel dOrnes
Église Saint-Michel dOrnes
Église Saint-Michel dOrnes
Église Saint-Michel dOrnes
Église Saint-Michel dOrnes
Crédit photo : Aimelaime - Sous licence Creative Commons

Timeline

Temps modernes
Révolution/Empire
XIXe siècle
Époque contemporaine
1800
1900
2000
1828
Construction of church
février 1916
Taken by the Germans
août 1917
Resumed by the French
1996
Classification of ruins
2021
Registration of the chapel
Aujourd'hui
Aujourd'hui

Heritage classified

The chapel Saint-Michel, the ground of the plot and the Fountain of Remembrance, in full, situated on Parcel No. 26, shown in the cadastre section AC for the chapel and on the path d'Ornes for the Fountain of Remembrance, all in accordance with the plan annexed to the decree: inscription by order of 15 December 2021

Key figures

Charles Laurent - Chanoine and historian Author of a reference book on Ornes (1938).
Aubert (ou Albert) d'Ornes - Medieval Lord Participated in the Chauvency-le-Château tournament in 1285.
Paul Noulin-Lespès - Architect Designed the Saint-Michel Memorial Chapel (1932).

Origin and history

The church of Saint Michael of Ornes, built in the first half of the 19th century, was the spiritual heart of the village of Ornes, located in the department of Meuse in the Grand East region. This village, attested as early as 1046, initially depended on the abbey Saint-Maur de Verdun and became an important village, with more than 1,300 inhabitants in the mid-19th century, living in agriculture, crafts and mills. The church, dedicated to Saint Michael, dated from 1828 and embodied local religious and community identity.

During the First World War, Ornes was completely destroyed during the Battle of Verdun, after being taken by the Germans in February 1916 and taken over by the French in August 1917. Ranked as a "red zone" because of irreversible damage, the village was never rebuilt, but retained its administrative status as a memorial. The ruins of the church, inscribed in the Historical Monuments in 1996, today bear witness to this tragedy, alongside a commemorative chapel built in 1932.

Prior to its destruction, Ornes played a central role in the surrounding villages, with diversified economic activities such as weaving. After the war, a chapel shelter was built near the ruins of the church, connected to them by the old "street above", today a forest road. This place of memory, unique among the nine villages "dead for France", perpetuates the memory of the victims and of the disappeared life, as evidenced by the work of Canon Charles Laurent, Ornes, the life and death of a Meusian village (1938).

The site, marked by thousands of holes still visible, is now on the edge of the Verdun state forest. The chapel of Saint-Michel, registered in 2021, and the fountain of Remembrance, erected in its axis, form a memorial complex managed by the commune, whose residual population is limited to a few inhabitants. Local elections reflect a collective memory rooted in the traumatic history of the place.

External links