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All French heritage classified by regions, departments and cities

  2. Patrimoine
  3. Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
  4. Territoire de Belfort
  5. 90000 Belfort

  6. Memorial Square and Memorial to the Dead

Memorial Square and Memorial to the Dead à Belfort en Territoire de Belfort

Territoire

Memorial Square and Memorial to the Dead

    4 Place de la Révolution Française
    90000 Belfort
Photo de Memorial Square and Memorial to the Dead
Crédit photo : Rom3721 - Sous licence Creative Commons

Timeline

XIXe siècle
Époque contemporaine
1900
2000
1920
Launch of the national competition
1924
Opening of the monument
1925-1928
Development of the square
1928
Added monument to *poilu*
25 avril 2022
Historical Monument
Aujourd'hui
Aujourd'hui

Heritage classified

The square of Remembrance, in its entirety, including its gates, its gates, its monuments, namely the monument to the death of the Great War by Georges Verez (1877-1933), the monument of the hairy by Léon de Leyritz (1888-1976) and the "Deadly Gauls" by Léon-Alexandre Delhomme (1841-1895), located avenue du Maréchal Foch, Place des Arts, Rue Degombert, on Parcel No. 71, shown in the cadastre section BK of the commune, as delimited in red on the plan annexed to the decree: inscription by decree of 25 April 2022

Key figures

Albert Le Monnier - Architect Designer of the monument and square.
Georges Verez - Sculptor Author of the Allegory of Victory.
Léon Leyritz - Sculptor Creator of the monument at the "poilu" (1928).
Paul Giroud - Belgian architect Directed the second phase of the square.
Général Nollet - Minister of War Inaugurated the monument in 1924.

Origin and history

The Belfort Remembrance Square, located east of the Savouruse River, was built on an old fairground to commemorate the 1056 Belfortins who died during the First World War. The city, strategic during the conflict, launched in 1920 an unprecedented national competition in Franche-Comté, won by architect Albert Le Monnier and sculptor Georges Verez. Their monument, inaugurated in 1924 by the Minister of War, is distinguished by its absence of funeral character: an allegory of the Victory dominates, surrounded by dynamic figures symbolizing the actors of the war. The regulation required that Belfort's role be highlighted as "glacis de la France", hence visual axes linking the monument to the Lion of Bartholdi.

The square, designed between 1925 and 1928 in two phases, combines regular paths around the central monument and landscape paths on the outskirts, under the successive direction of Le Monnier (advised by an anonymous landscaper) and local architect Paul Giroud. A substantial budget – 270,000 francs for the monument and 126,900 francs for the square – underlines the importance of the project. In 1928, a second monument, a hairy in series molten by Durenne and mounted on an original bank base signed Léon Leyritz, was added to invite to meditation. The square, densely planted despite its small size, creates an effect of monumentality, reinforced by protected elements such as gates, portals, and a pre-existing statue, Le Gaulois dying by Léon-Alexandre Delhomme.

The ensemble, classified as a Historical Monument in 2022, embodies Belfort's desire to transform a place of memory into a public space that is both solemn and accessible. The debates in the regional press during the competition and the public exhibition of the 31 projects were already evidence of citizen involvement in this commemorative project, unique in its regional scope. Today, the square remains a symbol of the resilience of a city marked by its border role during the Great War.

External links

Page Monumentum