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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

Beaucaire's monument to the dead, located in the Gard department in the Occitanie region, was erected in 1921 to honour the soldiers of the commune who died during the conflicts of the twentieth century. It is located at the entrance of the cemetery and consists of a pediment framed by two columns, decorated with marble plaques engraved with the names of 208 soldiers of the First World War, as well as victims of other conflicts (World War II, Indochina, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina). A statue of a woman in Provencal costume, the work of sculptor Raymond Sudre, places laurels on an altar symbolizing the sacrifice of the hairy.

The monument, designed by architect Maximilian Raphel, is 6 meters high, with a 1.9 m statue. Its style combines classic references (columns, pediment) and regional (Provencal Costume), reflecting local identity. It was listed as a historical monument on October 18, 2018, among 42 similar monuments in the Occitanie region, for its artistic and memorial value.

The work is part of a post-First World War context where the French communes erected monuments to commemorate unprecedented human losses. In Beaucaire, as elsewhere, these monuments served as a place for the gathering and transmission of collective memory, while affirming a local identity through regional symbols, such as the Provencal costume or laurels, emblems of glory and peace.

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