The Douaumont Ossuary

The Douaumont Ossuary is a memorial in Douaumont-Vaux, France, containing the skeletal remains of soldiers who died on the battlefield during the Battle of Verdun in World War I. It is located immediately next to the Fleury-devant-Douaumont National Necropolis. The building was constructed on the initiative of Charles Ginisty, Bishop of Verdun. During the 300 days of the Battle of Verdun from February 21, 1916, to December 19, 1916, approximately 300,000 men died out of a total of 700,000 casualties.

The ossuary contains the remains of both French and German soldiers who died on the Verdun battlefield. Through small outside windows, the skeletal remains of at least 130,000 unidentified combatants of both nations can be seen filling up alcoves at the lower edge of the building. On the inside of the ossuary building, the ceiling and walls are partly covered by plaques bearing names of French soldiers who died during the Battle of Verdun. The families of the soldiers that are recognized here by name contributed for those individual plaques.

The ossuary was officially inaugurated on 7 August 1932 by French President Albert Lebrun. In front of the monument lies the largest single French military cemetery of the First World War, which contains 16,142 graves.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons