Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Victory Monument in Tourcoing originated in an official project launched after the First World War. In July 1923, a municipal decree validates its implementation, entrusting its design to architect Édouard Monestès and sculptor Lucien Brasseur, winners of a contest organized by the town hall. The first stone was laid in 1924, but the work lasted until 1929 for the structure, while the sculptures did not begin until 1930. The solemn inauguration took place in 1931, marking the culmination of a nearly eight-year construction project.

The monument adopts a pyramidal form, symbolizing the ascension of soldiers from the trenches to glory. Its 'V' base supports stones of varying sizes, some carved, while at the top is a winged Victory over riding a horse. On both sides, two columns of soldiers, armed with spears and draped in banners forming a vault, seem to climb the building. At the ends, lying soldiers rise to the call of the Victory, illustrating the resurrection after the horror of the war. The ensemble, classified as Historical Monument in 2009, embodies both mourning and hope.

Located in Place de la Victoire (formerly named in the Mérimée archives), the monument is now owned by the municipality of Tourcoing. Its iconography, combining realism and allegory, reflects the artistic codes of monuments to the deaths of the inter-war period, where the heroic dimension disputes it in memory of sacrifices. Materials and composition aim to create a motion effect, such as a procession towards light.

The context of its creation was part of a period of national reconstruction, when northern cities, hard hit by war, erected symbols of resilience. Tourcoing, the industrial city of Hauts-de-France, also sees it as a means of asserting its local identity. The monument, open to the public, remains a place of recollection and commemoration, anchored in the urban landscape.

External links