l'ossuaire de douaumont

What an incredibly sad place, over 15000 graves with crosses of fallen soldiers , a memorial to Christians soldiers, fallen Israelites as well as a memorial to fallen Muslims.A huge, what looks like a hilt of a sword plunged into the ground memorial(To portray peace-a place of peace)that houses the bones of a minimum of a further 130000 unknown fallen solders.All in all over the Verdun battlefield ,an area if I am not mistaken that covered around 20 sq kilometers, around 60 Million shells fell over a 10 month period, killing over 300000 French and German soldiers and maiming and wounding a further 400000.The topography in the area resembles that of a lunar landscape , made up of mounds and shallows caused by exploding shells, not a piece of stone, wood or grass, village or natural life was visible at the end of the 10 months. A place of hell. A grave of dead, called VerdunSo very sad the folly of war....yet we seem to repeat it time ad time again.Something all should see whilst touring the nearby vineyards-reminds us of our mortality.We used a guide by the name of Ingrid-she was superb, knowledgeable and articulate and sucked you into the era with her story telling, made it so much more interesting-use a guide-she was fluent in French, German and English and seemed to have a double barrelled surname part french and part german

This is a large building that lists the names of the dead and the missing. Photography is not allowed on the inside, not sure why. It is hard to get a photo anyway given the red lighting used on the inside. This is a memorial to the Battle of Verdun and contains the remains of 130,000 unidentified French and German soldiers. You can see bones, but you have to go to the far end, there is no signage that tells you this. We missed seeing this part of the display. Why have this available if you don’t tell tourist where to go? We went up in the tower and this provided a nice view over the cemetery below and the surrounding countryside. Skip the movie. We were told it was in English, but it was in French. We got up and left after a few minutes. Give yourself about 45 minutes to an hour here.

We got to Memorial place early in morning, nice weather and silence and many soldiers graves,we strolled through cemetery and tried imagine the battles,that were there.In Memorial building we may see the movie about battles in Verdun,and there were many showpieces of the wartime :first gas masks,huge shells,personal things of military men.

This is a huge memorial which is visible from way off. We only visited the main hall and outside. The rows and rows of gravestones are just a chilling reminder of all the young men from all the countries that fought for our freedom. Its just a shame that the couple of coach loads of french schoolchildren couldn`t or didn`t have such equal respect. We witnessed running through the graves, shouting, taking selfies whilst all the teachers could do was `have a fag`. Shame on you.

This is a huge memorial built in the shape of a sword which has been buried to its hilt, thus the long narrow building with the tower located in the center. On the inside are memorial markers to the various military units that fought at Verdun. Underneath are the bones of thousands of unknown dead. The memorial sits on a hill that overlooks an impressive cemetery with row upon row of white crosses. Visible only from the outside at the back of the building are small windows near the ground through which you can see the often neatly stacked bones. The carnage is sometimes hard to imagine until you are confronted with the skeletal remains of countless soldiers whose bodies were so damaged that identification was not possible. The film that shows inside, for which there is a fee, is a must, giving a nice overview of the battle and how the war changed the area. A number of small villages were totally destroyed and never rebuilt. And yet even today, the local populace elects a mayor for each destroyed village out of respect for the dead.

A trip to the Douomont Ossuary is not goin to bring a smile to anyone's face but it is an impressive reminder of what humans did to each other 100-years ago. The setting is ideal - a clear area in a wooded region, the tall tower of the pale stone building, and the field of white crosses laid out in front.The visit begins with a short film in your langauge of choice, there are also some interesting 3D photographs to view in the shop beforehand.You are then at your leisure to view the building and climb the tower. Climbing the tower is hard work but worth it, there is an impressive view from the top. The semi-brutalist construction of the internal tower is a stark contrast with the soft curves of the exterior. The reflection comes from the main hall which includes numerous memorials and the names of thousands of soldiers killed in the area. Listed endlessly on the walls and ceiling.Outside there are low viewing portals into the catacombs containing the bones circa 160,000 unknown men (they are adding to this on a continuous basis as they are found in the surrounding area). Hard to contemplate the bones of so many people stacked in pits with no idea who they once were.Final point - there are numerous signs stating that this is a place of quiet and respect so please keep voices down, hats off and photograph only where signposted. Its amazing the amount of tourists who cannot understand or adhere to this.

Take the time to see all of this. Start inside with the hall of remembrance. Pay the small fee and go up into the lower floors of the tower to see a small but excellent example of the weaponry equipment and keepsakes of the soldiers. Then, see the movie in the theater adjacent to the gift shop. It's one of the best historical museum films around and really sets the tone of the war and all its stupidity and waste. Finally, step outside and look into a few of the small square windows running along the base of the building's rear side.Overlooking the large cemetary in front of the building before you leave, you'll have a real sense of the waste of which humans and their goverments are capable. I had done some reading about WWI before I got here, so maybe it meant more to me, but homestly, this momument can't help but teach.

Visiting the memorial is a very sobering experience. What a waste of mankind and this memorial is about peace. This should never happen again.

After visiting one of the forts and the disappeared villages, this is certainly the highpoint of any visit to the Verdun area. The extremely well kept graves and the recently cleaned ossuary make even the most outgoing person fall silent with awe and reverence. The building is freely accessible, as are the windows at the back that let one glimpse the grisly remains of all those unknowns that died around Verdun after untold suffering and hardship. After paying nine Euros, one can watch an unmissable twenty-minute film in several languages with blue-ray earphones; the scene where soldiers carry the coffins to be laid at rest in the cemetery, watched by throngs of onlookers, is still heartrending. (The Dutch version was unfortunately spoken by a Belgian with a very strong West-Flemish accent.) The little museum in the tower displays some uniforms and weaponry (among which two mansize shells), the view from the bell-tower offers a beautiful view of the cemetery and the Ossuary's surroundings. The gift shop offers books in French, German and English and the usual overpriced trivia that, once home, land in a box on the attic.

Having visited several monuments to WWI over the last few weeks this has moved me more than any. The tragic loss at Verdun, on both sides is so well illustrated by the accompanying film at the memorial, but seeing the piles of bones and unmarked graves just highlights the futility of it all. An unmissable experience.

I stopped here on a whim driving back to Germany from France. I'm so glad I stopped. The momument is very well done. There is a film you can watch about Verdun and the battles that took place there during in WWI. I also learned about the communitites that once stood around Verdun and no longer exist due to these battles. Douaumont is one of those lost communities. You can climb (up many, many stairs) to the top of the monument for a great aerial view of the surrounding forest and the cemetary below. There are also viewing windows you can see the bones of the 130,000 unknown soldiers. Very moving and well done.

After having seen many pictures of it, I finally visited the ossuary of Douaumont itself, and that is a very special experience. It is hard to understand that 130,000 French and German casualties of the Battle of Verdun are buried here in great tombs.In front of the ossuary is also a cemetery with 15,000 French graves.

For 300 days in 1917, the Battle of Verdun was fought in a small 10 square mile area centered on the River Muese. The Ossuary is a stark reminder of the lives and communities lost in the "War to end all Wars". The remains of over 150,000 soldiers are interred in the Ossuary and the cemetary on these hallowed grounds. The surrounding area is a stark reminder of the harsh world of warfare. Entire communities have disappeared, outlined by stone markers depicting town designs. The pock-marks of the nearly year long shellings are visible everywhere on the roads leading to the Ossuary and Fort Douaumont. On this 100th Anniversary of the start of World War I, the battlefields of Verdun are a must-see for an insight into how destructive and painful warfare was at the turn of the 20th century.

After calculating the thousands buried in the cemetery outside, climb the tower of this tomb to contemplate the appalling loss of life that was the first World War. It's a sobering visit at the best of times, but worth the trip.

This monument is visible form a distance and very distinctive in shape. The short film (6euros) was helpful to us understanding the area of Verdun and its significance. The Ossuary is impressive in its size and thought provoking. This is a well worthwhile visit if you are doing a World War one trip to France. The drive to get there through the now lost villages is very moving. Many of the shell holes remain but the houses and roads are long gone.