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Origin and history

The monument to the dead of Onesse-et-Laharie was commissioned in 1921 by the City Council to honour the soldiers of the commune who had fallen during the First World War. His design was entrusted to architects Henri Dépruneaux and Charles Sanlaville, while the sculptures were made by Henri Charlier. The monument, located in the enclosure of the cemetery, consists of a statue of a woman kneeling above a vault housing the remains of the soldiers, whose names are engraved on a plaque. A cross decorated with a bas-relief representing a wounded hairy and a soldier caught in barbed wire completes the whole, evoking the sacrifice of the fighters.

The statue, executed directly in stone without prior modelling, illustrates the technical mastery of Henri Charlier, already author of religious and monumental works. The monument also includes regional elements, such as a shepherd sculpture and pine apples, symbols of the Landes. Traces of polychromy remain, recalling that the work was originally surrounded by a plant composition that is now extinct. In 2005, it was listed as a historical monument in 2025 for its artistic and memorial value.

Henri Charlier, renowned sculptor, marked this monument by his innovative approach, combining emotion and technical rigor. The project reflects the communal will to perpetuate the memory of the soldiers, while enrolling in a post-Great War artistic movement, where funeral art becomes a vector of collective mourning. The monument, owned by the commune, remains a poignant testimony of this period and local identity.

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