Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The national monument of the second battle of the Marne, known as the Ghosts, was designed by sculptor Paul Landowski to honour the soldiers who died during the decisive offensive of July 1918. Commanded by the State in 1919 under the name The Dead, the project is moving towards a representation of seven ghosts in granite, symbolizing French weapons (grenadier, aviator, etc.), surrounding a young martyr. The site of the Chalmont hill, where the Germans retreated on July 28, 1918, was chosen by the veterans in 1926.

The sculpture The Ghosts, 8 meters high, is accompanied by an allegorical statue of France and engraved steles relating the fighting. Inaugurated on July 21, 1935 by President Albert Lebrun, the monument was exceptionally classified in 1934 before its completion, financed by a national subscription. Landowski expresses the ambiguity of victory, mixing pain and hope, with a monumental work overlooking the Tardenois plain.

The memorial is part of a landscape marked by the Great War: the Chalmont hill, a strategic point in 1918, becomes a place of memory where the spectral figures of the soldiers watch over the peace found. The inscriptions recall the offensive of General Mangin (18-26 July 1918), who permanently pushed the German troops back to Vesle, releasing Soissons and shortening the front by 50 km. This monument, one of the first of the 20th century classified as Picardy, bears witness to the collective effort to preserve the memory of the 9 million deaths of the conflict.

Paul Landowski, a 1914-1918 veteran, conceived The Ghosts as a promise: "These dead I will raise them," declared in 1916. The sculpted group, where each soldier embodies a weapon, surrounds a naked young man, a symbol of youth sacrificed and protected by his elders. The monument, preceded by an approach evoking the four years of war, is isolated by a grassed space, emphasizing its sacred character.

Ranked in 1934, the Phantom Monument illustrates the artistic and memorial innovation of the inter-war period. Unlike ossuaries or cemeteries, he celebrates victory with an abstract and poetic work, where granite embodies the permanence of memory. Today, it still dominates the Tardenois plain, recalling the decisive role of this battle in the end of the First World War.

External links