Douaumont Tower Staircase from the bottom

Douaumont Tower Staircase from the bottom.... more

by Weston Westmoreland

Title

Douaumont Tower Staircase from the bottom

Artist

Weston Westmoreland

Medium

Photograph

Description

Douaumont Tower Staircase from the bottom.

The Douaumont ossuary (L'ossuaire de Douaumont) is a memorial containing the remains of soldiers who died on the battlefield during the Battle of Verdun in World War I. It is located in Douaumont, France, within the Verdun battlefield. It has been designated a "n�cropole nationale", or "national cemetery".

The Battle of Verdun started in February 1916 and lasted 300 days. 230,000 men are believed to have died, out of a total of 700,000 casualties (dead, wounded and missing). The battle became known both for Germans and French alike as The Hell of Verdun. The battlefield covered less than 7.7 square miles. So much death in so little space. Difficult to picture.

The cemetery holds the graves of over 16,000 French soldiers, while the ossuary holds the bones of 130,000 unknown soldiers, both French and German. The tower at the center of the building is 151 ft high and has a panoramic view of the battlefields. The tower contains a bronze death-bell called Bourdon de la Victoire, which is sounded at official ceremonies. It was offered by an American benefactor, Anne Thornburn Van Buren, in 1927. At the top of the tower a rotating red and white "lantern of the dead", shines on the battlefields at night. The cloister is 449 ft long and contains 42 interior alcoves.

A sobering visit.


You can learn more about what drives me in my blog:

http://inspiringthoughtsandimages.com/

Weston Westmoreland.

Uploaded

October 14th, 2016