Verdun
Battlefield Of The 1916 Battle Of Verdun, With The Douaumont Ossuary, Forts And The Destroyed Villages; The Douaumont Ossuary Is Among The First World War Funerary And Memory Sites Inscribed By UNESCO In 2023 (Confirm) · Verdun, Grand Est
The Battle of Verdun lasted from February to December 1916 and became the longest battle of the First World War and a defining memory for France. German and French armies fought over a ring of forts and hills on the right bank of the Meuse north of the town, and hundreds of thousands of men were killed or wounded on a few square kilometres. The battlefield today is a forest planted over ground still churned by shell craters, with trenches, forts and memorials spread along a loop of roads. At its centre stands the Douaumont Ossuary, a long building with a tall lantern tower that holds the bones of about 130,000 unidentified French and German soldiers, facing a national cemetery of thousands of graves. Nearby are Fort Douaumont and Fort Vaux, the Verdun Memorial museum at Fleury, the Trench of Bayonets and the sites of villages destroyed and never rebuilt. The town of Verdun has its own underground citadel. A car is almost essential, and the visit is quiet and moving.
Douaumont Ossuary and the Verdun battlefield, Meuse, Verdun, Grand Est, France
The battlefield itself is open forest crossed by public roads, so the memorials, cemetery, craters and destroyed village sites can be seen outdoors at any time in daylight. The paid sites keep their own hours: the Douaumont Ossuary, Fort Douaumont, Fort Vaux and the Verdun Memorial museum at Fleury generally open every day from about spring to autumn, from morning to early evening, with shorter hours in winter; several of them close for a period in winter, often around the Christmas holidays and January, so confirm dates before a winter trip. Last entry is usually some time before closing. The underground Citadel tour in Verdun town runs most of the year with seasonal hours and can sell out for groups; book at busy times. Combined tickets for several sites have been offered; confirm. Special commemorations, especially around the February anniversary of the start of the battle and 11 November, may bring road closures or restricted access to the Ossuary. There is little food on the battlefield itself, so plan meals in town.