Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

Domjevin's underground military hospital, also called the Manonviller emergency station, was built by the French Army between late 1916 and early 1918. Located in the immediate rear-front, in the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle (Lorraine region), it was intended for those injured who were considered untransportable. Ranked as historic monuments since 1922, this site testifies to medical innovations in the context of war, with an entirely underground infrastructure planned to withstand bombings.

The complex, dug in the side of Hill 291, consists of three perpendicular galleries covered with corrugated sheet and protected by a slope of earth. Its construction was led by the 73rd Infantry Division's group of stretchers in 1917, for commissioning in January 1918. The hospital included dedicated spaces: rooms for 50 wounded lying and 100 seated, officer's shelter, operating room, X-ray, sterilization, kitchen, and even a room for surgeons, all powered by an generator.

Designed as an underground surgical ambulance, Domjevin Hospital illustrates the adaptation of medical infrastructure to the constraints of the Great War. Its organization reflects the urgent need for close care for soldiers, with modern equipment for the period (electricity, radiography). Today's visible building, although partially buried, preserves the traces of this exceptional military engineering, linked to the proximity of the front and the logistical challenges of the time.

External links