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Origin and history

The Dole Dead Monument, located in the North Cemetery on Landon Avenue, is a Landon stone building erected in the early 20th century. It is distinguished by its position on a grassy terten surrounded by stands bearing the names of the missing soldiers. The building, designed as an ancient altar, is composed of three pillars supporting an entablishment decorated with oak leaves and laurels, carved by Pierre Seguin (1872-1958). The names of the iconic battles (Marne, Verdun, Yser) are engraved there, while a draped statue, symbolizing the city in mourning and holding laurels crowns, is the work of Felix Desruelles (1865-1943), Rome's second grand prize in 1891. A brilliant grenade, evoking ancient lightnings, overcomes the inscriptions of the 22 other battles.

The project, decided by the municipal council on 4 August 1919 to honour the 488 Dolois soldiers who died during the First World War, was entrusted to architect Eugene Chifflot (1872-1956), himself a veteran and member of La Cité nouvelle, a society of architects dedicated to the reconstruction of devastated areas. The rare choice of implanting the monument in a cemetery is explained by the desire to associate burials of soldiers, thus structuring the funeral space opened twenty years earlier. The total cost is 92,500 francs, and the inauguration takes place in 1922. A pacifist sentence, "Cursed be the war", is engraved, although the follow-up envisaged by Chifflot, "and cursed are those who foment it", had not been realized.

The monument, completely classified by decree of 19 December 2022, later incorporated the names of the victims of the Second World War on its terre. His iconography, without a representation of the hair, focuses on symbols of sacrifice and collective memory. The ensemble, owned by the commune, marks the Dolois landscape with its sculptural allegory and its humanist message, reflecting both local mourning and an aspiration for peace.

The architecture of the monument is part of a post-Great War context where the French communes erected memorial buildings to honour their dead. Dole, the city of Franche-Comté, illustrates this trend with a monument that is both sober and full of symbols, mixing ancient references (altitude, laurels) and modernity (absence of hairy, pacifist message). The collaboration between Chifflot, Seguin and Desruelles, all marked by conflict or academic training, gives the work a remarkable artistic and historical dimension.

The location in the North Cemetery, on the axis with the monumental gate, and the integration of 46 burials around the monument make it a central gathering place. The treed driveway leading to the site reinforces its solemn character. This urbanistic choice, unusual for a commune of this size, underscores the desire to create a unified memorial space, where architecture and landscape dialogue to perpetuate the memory of the disappeared.

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