Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The monument to the dead of Frasne, located in the Doubs department in Burgundy-Franche-Comté, was commissioned in 1921 to honour the 52 children of the commune who died during the First World War. The municipal council allocates a budget of 50 500 francs for its implementation. The choice of the monument, lay, was imposed by Adolphe Girod, mayor from 1922 to 1929 and former aviator, despite the opposition of the soldiers' families. This choice caused tensions at its inauguration in 1923.

The sculpture, entrusted to Georges Laëthier, represents a victorious hairy, the right arm holding a palm, while his left hand holds a flag draped as if under the influence of the wind. Laëthier, trained at the Beaux-Arts de Besançon and Paris, modeled the figure on earth before its cast bronze by the house Andro. The monument is initially installed in front of Frasne railway station, a symbolic place because the city is a railway crossroads to Switzerland and Italy. In 1989, he was moved to the church square and his bronze was painted in beef blood in 2017.

Adolphe Girod, central figure of the project, is a radical-socialist MP and pioneer of military aviation. His brother Charles succeeded him as mayor. In 1934-1935, Laëthier also made a bronze bust for the monument to General Girod, located on the Grande Rue. The monument to the dead, fully classified in 2022, even inspired the poet Raymond Queneau in 1965, who devoted to him a poem entitled « Frasne » in his collection Le chien à la mandolin.

External links