Photo : Flocci Nivis / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Verdun
Long before becoming the universal symbol of the trenches of 1916, Verdun, in the Meuse, was already a prestigious city, the seat of a bishopric from late Antiquity and the scene in 843 of the treaty that divided Charlemagne's empire. The Porte Chaussée, an imposing 14th-century fortified gate flanked by two crenellated towers, still guards one of the bridges over the Meuse in the heart of the town, one of the most emblematic views of the historic centre.
The Cathedral of Notre-Dame, mixing Romanesque and Gothic, and the underground citadel, a vast network of galleries that sheltered staff and soldiers during the Great War, complete an urban heritage spanning two thousand years. Rebuilt and at peace, Verdun remains a major place of remembrance, surrounded by battlefields and memorials recalling the scale of the fighting.
