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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The monument to the dead of Montbrison, located in the garden of Allard, is a 6.65 m high limestone cenotaph erected in 1920 to honour the soldiers who died during the First World War and the aviator Émile Reymond, senator and captain-aviator killed in 1914. It presents itself as a wall evoking a memorial arch, with a symbolic door and the inscription Dead for the Fatherland. At the front, four hairs frame the bust of Émile Reymond, surrounded by two female allegories representing medicine and aviation, his areas of engagement. A quote from Reymond is engraved on the pedestal: There must be deaths for hundreds of those who aspire to replace them.

Originally commissioned in 1915 to honour Émile Reymond only, the project evolved in 1917 to include all Montbrisonnais who died at the front, under the leadership of the municipal council. The sculptor Albert Bartholomew, chosen by a national committee chaired by the President of the Republic, adapted his work by adding four soldiers at the foot of the bust. The monument was inaugurated in 1920, in the absence of President Paul Deschanel, who fell from a train the day before. Financed by national subscription, it was first installed near the barracks in Vaux before being transferred in 1980 to the garden of Allard, where it was classified as a historical monument in 2021.

Émile Reymond (1864-1914), son of Senator Francisque Reymond, was a surgeon, aviation pioneer and advocate for the creation of military squadrons. He died heroically on a reconnaissance mission in 1914, he was the only senator killed to the enemy, honoured by a bust in the Senate and a stained glass window in Savigneux. Its monument, symbolizing the transition from individual tributes to collective memorials of the twentieth century, lists 187 deaths from 1914-1918, 30 from 1939-1945 and 4 from the North African campaign. It embodies the memory of modern conflicts and the evolution of commemorative practices.

The monument is part of a set of three memorials in Montbrison, including one commemorative column of 1922 and another in the former municipality of Moingt. Ranked for its artistic and historical value, it illustrates the funeral architecture of the interwar period, mixing sobriety and symbolism. The plaques subsequently added for later conflicts reflect its continuing role as a place of collection. Its displacement in 1980, far from the destroyed barracks, made it a central element of the garden of Allard, a memorial and relaxation space.

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