Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The monument to the dead of Petit-Canal is a cenotaph erected in 1936 on Rue Jean-Jaurès, in front of the town hall. He was commissioned by the commune and paid tribute to the Canalian soldiers who died during the First World War (1914-1918). The monument, in Art Deco style, is built of concrete reinforced by Diligenti society and decorated with a 2.15 m galvano-bronze statue, representing a hairy. This work is attributed to the sculptor Émile André Leroy, winner of the Prix de la Guadeloupe in 1933, whose model was his friend René Cotard, also a sculptor.

The statue, initially unpainted, was made in Leroy's workshop in Saint-Amand-Montrond, then shipped by boat to be inaugurated in 1937. The monument bears the inscription "Petit-Canal — Remember — 1914-1918" and two side plates engraved with the names of about twenty soldiers. Its architecture, marked by a ternary rhythm, evokes the style of architect Ali Tur, active in the reconstruction of Guadeloupe between 1929 and 1936, notably for the town hall of Petit-Canal in 1931.

Ranked as historical monuments by decree of 24 April 2018, this monument was the subject of an exhibition in 2018, on the occasion of the centenary of the Armistice. This exhibition, organized in Petit-Canal and Baie-Mahault, highlighted Leroy's two cenotaphs, highlighting their singularity in the Antillean memorial landscape. Petit-Canal is distinguished by its representation of a white soldier, contrasting with the hairy African origin of the Baie-Mahault monument, rarer in the West Indies.

External links