Maurice Genevoix, veteran, chairman and founder of the Verdun Memorial
“This memorial was built by the survivors of Verdun in memory of their comrades who fell during the battle so that those who come to reflect and contemplate at the very site of their sacrifice understand the ideal and the faith that inspired and supported them.”
The origins of Verdun Memorial
The idea of a “centre for the soldiers of Verdun” emerged in the late 1930s. However, it did not come into being until the 1950s, under the impetus of the federation “Ceux de Verdun” (the Verdun veterans association) and its national president Gustave Durassié. In 1959, the Comité National du Souvenir de Verdun (CNSV - national committee for the memory of Verdun) and its chairman Maurice Genevoix agreed to play a role in the project. A site was chosen: the former station in Fleury-devant-Douaumont, a village which was declared to have “died for France”.
The estimated cost of the project was 250 million old French francs, and a national appeal for donations was launched by the CNSV. The target was reached rapidly, thanks to the efforts of veterans associations who relayed the appeal to their members, the general public and local authorities. On 17 September 1967, the building was officially opened by the Minister for Veterans, Henri Duvillard. More than 3,000 people, 2,000 poilus (French First World War veterans) and 200 standard-bearers attended.
At the ceremony, Maurice Genevoix gave a powerful, moving speech focusing on peace, establishing a link between the veterans and future generations. Verdun Memorial was designed by the veterans as a “Temple of Memory” to pay homage to their brothers in arms killed at the front, to ensure that the message of their sacrifice was passed on down the generations. Today, Verdun Memorial is one of Europe’s leading First World War memorials. It is an essential visit for anyone who wants to feel and understand what Verdun was all about, and pass on the memory.
Maurice Genevoix’s speech
The old Memorial
The renovation of the building in 2016
Having stood for more than four decades, the building needed modernisation to repair the ravages of the passing years and refashion the museology to speak to new generations. There are no survivors left to remember their experiences of the battle of Verdun. It is therefore essential that, while respecting the spirit of their work, the Memorial adapts its message to give young people the information they need to understand this battle between France and Germany. In September 2013, the Memorial closed its doors for the extension and renovation work. This was part of a wider project including an interpretation centre, which was originally intended to be separate, at the heart of a pine forest which has now been designated an “exceptional forest” at the request of the Office National des Forêts (National Forests Office). On 21 February 2016, a larger, fully renovated Memorial opened to mark the centenary of the battle. Three months later, it was officially inaugurated by François Hollande and Angela Merkel. The new scenography aims both to impart information and to trigger emotions. It takes visitors to the heart of the Great War and the battlefield.
The project
The Memorial has been extended and redesigned, with an additional 1,900 square metres of space making it even more powerful. Thanks to the modernisation, the original monument has been renovated and refitted to give it a new lease of life, and the third level offers views of the surrounding landscape. The renovation involved opening up additional space in two new side wings, fitting out a new reception area and making the building more accessible. In doing so it reinforced the links between the original building and the battlefield and expanded its functions as a museum and a reception space.
Verdun Memorial was designed as an interpretation centre where, through an immersive approach, objects and archive documents tell their stories, seeking to enable visitors to walk in the footsteps of the soldiers, in a journey that prioritises historical accuracy and sensitivity. True to the vision of the founders, the battlefield and the French and German soldiers who fought there remain central to the visitor experience. The scenography has however been remodelled to harness the best of modern technology and spectacular audiovisual creations, 3D audio effects, graphic media, photographs and spoken archives bring to life the 2,000 objects in the display cases (fashioned in glass and rough-hewn timber).
The ground floor focuses on the experiences of the front-line troops, at the heart of the battlefield. Arriving on the first floor, visitors are taken behind the front lines and then go on to discover the work undertaken to keep the memory of the battle alive. From the terraces on the top floor, they can look across the battlefield. Interactive exhibits help visitors to pick out traces of the battle in the surrounding landscape. Three years of research, collaboration and dialogue was needed to create this permanent exhibition in memory of the veterans.
The reorganisation of the visitor pathway has been an opportunity to carry out significant work on the existing collections and add to them. Following identification and documentation work, staff undertook a project to clean the objects and repair more than a hundred of them. New objects were acquired for the collections and others were added through loans and deposits by several major institutions in France and Europe, to enrich the visitor pathway and balance the French and German viewpoints.
The project to completely overhaul the museum was managed by the Société d’Équipement du Bassin Lorrain (SEBL) at the request of the Comité National du Souvenir de Verdun (CNSV), a non-profit with public interest status that was responsible for the Verdun Memorial at the time. Almost 80 public procurement contracts or orders were placed with a range of businesses as part of the project. Project management was split between two different firms: Brochet Lajus Pueyo for the buildings and landscaping and Le Conte/Noirot for the museography. Édith Desrousseaux de Medrano, from Sources, curated the new permanent exhibition.
Parties involved in the renovation
Brochet Lajus Pueyo - Architecture
In 1986, architects Olivier Brochet, Emmanuel Lajus and Christine Pueyo founded their firm, Brochet Lajus Pueyo, which they now manage. They initially became known thanks to the “Albums of Young Architecture” competition and the “40 under 40” exhibition presented at the Institut Français de l’Architecture (French architecture institute) and then by the Venice Biennale (1991), and made a name for themselves thanks to their contemporary projects on heritage buildings and the care they took to reinterpret local characteristics. Prestigious projects on which they have worked include the renovations of Musée Fabre in Montpellier (2007), Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris (2006) and Musée de l’Homme at the Palais de Chaillot in Place du Trocadéro, Paris (2015).
Agence Le Conte / Noirot - Muséographie
Christian Le Conte et Geneviève Noirot sont architectes, scénographes et muséographes. Ils œuvrent pour des musées patrimoniaux et pour la création de centres d’interprétation. Attachés à la multiplicité et à la complémentarité des démarches artistiques, ils proposent à travers leurs projets scénographiques une vision singulière des univers d’exposition et tendent à exprimer le souci des correspondances. Ils comptent parmi leurs réalisations le redéploiement complet des bronzes et des bijoux du département des AGER dans la salle La Caze au Louvre, le Musée de la carte à jouer à Issy-les-Moulineaux (1er prix européen des musées en 1999), le Mémorial Charles-de-Gaulle à Colombey-les-deux-Églises ou encore Nausicaa, le Centre national de la mer en France, classé Centre d’excellence par l’Unesco.
Agence Sources - Commissariat
Édith Desrousseaux de Medrano exerce depuis 2001 des fonctions de commissariat d’exposition. Elle a d’abord été adjointe au commissariat d’exposition au sein de la Fondation Charles de Gaulle pour le Mémorial Charles-de-Gaulle à Colombey-les-deux-Églises, puis pour une exposition temporaire « De Gaulle-Adenauer » (2008). Devenue profession libérale en 2010, avec son agence Sources, elle a ensuite travaillé à la conception et à la réalisation de l’exposition itinérante « Romain Gary présente : les compagnons de la Libération » (2010-2011). Elle s’est ensuite consacrée à la préparation de l’exposition permanente du Mémorial de Verdun depuis fin 2012.
Renovation: key dates
1 September 2013
The Memorial closes its doors and the teams’ offices and the collections are transferred to the Centre Mondial de la Paix
September - November 2013
Preliminary tasks in advance of the extension and renovation work: cleaning, asbestos removal, demolition and explosive clearance
December 2013
Excavation
January 2014
Foundations
January 2015
After a year of work on the building envelope, it reaches the closed shell stage, with the structure finalised
February 2015
Scenography work begins: the framework for the glass floor and the cage for the central scene are built
July 2015
The aeroplanes are suspended from the scene cage
September-December 2015
Séquoïa puts the windows in place
October 2015
Adess puts the floor decor in place The collections are brought back from the stores and the guns and Berliet trucks are placed in the new museum
October-December 2015
Duo frames the two-dimensional works
December 2015
Version Bronze begins plinth-making work
22 February 2016
Public opening
29 May 2016
Official inauguration by François Hollande, the President of France, and Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, as part of a day of commemorations marking the centenary of the Battle of Verdun.
