Fleury-devant-Douaumont

Fleury-devant-Douaumont

Fleury-devant-Douaumont

Commune in Grand Est, France

Fleury-devant-Douaumont (French pronunciation: [flœʁi dəvɑ̃ dwomɔ̃], literally Fleury before Douaumont) is a commune in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.

Quick Facts Country, Region ...

During the Battle of Verdun in 1916 it was captured and recaptured by the Germans and French 16 times. Since then, it has been unoccupied (official population: 0), as have the communes of Bezonvaux, Beaumont-en-Verdunois, Haumont-près-Samogneux, Louvemont-Côte-du-Poivre and Cumières-le-Mort-Homme.

History

During the war, the town was completely destroyed and the land rendered so uninhabitable that officials decided not to rebuild it. As the land around the municipality was polluted with corpses, ammunition, explosives and poisonous gas, it was deemed too contaminated for farming to resume. The site is maintained as a testimony to war and is officially designated as a "village that died for France." It is managed by a municipal council of three members appointed by the prefect of the Meuse department.

Before the war Fleury was a village of 422 engaged in agriculture and woodworking. Today, it is a wooded area next to the Verdun Memorial. Arrows guide visitors to where the streets and houses used to be.

See also

References

  1. [1]
    "Populations légales 2021". The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 28 December 2023.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fleury-devant-Douaumont.


Stub icon

This Meuse geographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Stub icon

This ghost town–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Fleury-devant-Douaumont, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.