Douaumont Ossuary

Did You Know?

• The Battle of Verdun lasted 300 days, from 21 February 1916 to 19 December 1916.
• Approximately 300,000 men died out of a total of 700,000 casualties during the battle.
• The battle became known in German as Die Hölle von Verdun and in French as L'Enfer de Verdun.

Ossuary information

This memorial holds the bones of French and German soldiers killed at Verdun. Outside, small windows reveal the skeletal remains of at least 130,000 unknown fighters from both sides, stacked in alcoves along the building’s base. Inside, plaques cover parts of the ceiling and walls, listing French soldiers who died in the Battle of Verdun. A few names come from World War II combat in the area, and from veterans of the Indochina and Algerian Wars. Families paid for the plaques that recognize their own. Downhill from the monument lies France’s largest World War I military cemetery, with 16,142 graves. It was opened in 1923 by André Maginot, a Verdun veteran who later oversaw the Maginot Line. The ossuary itself was dedicated on 7 August 1932 by President Albert Lebrun.

Architecture

The Douaumont Ossuary was designed by Léon Azéma, Max Edrei, and Jacques Hardy, with stained glass windows by George Desvallières. Its 46-meter tower offers a panoramic view of the battlefields and holds a bronze death-bell weighing over two tons, the Bourdon de la Victoire, rung during official ceremonies. This bell was a 1927 gift from American donor Anne Thornburn Van Buren. At the tower’s top, a rotating red and white lantern of the dead illuminates the battlefields each night. The 137-meter cloister features 42 interior alcoves.