Fleury is a village very close to Verdun. Before the war, Fleury was a village of 422 that produced agriculture and woodworking. Today, it's an artillery scarred area next to the Verdun Memorial with no houses or roads left. The village is still on the maps and it has its of major, but the official population of it is 0.
(How Fleury looked like before WWI)
On February 21st, 1916, Fleury was awakened by the bombardment preparing the German assault. It was snowing and the horizon was on fire. The inhabitants were evacuated to Bras-sur-Meuse and Verdun. By the beginning of May, the village was completely destroyed. During the Battle of Verdun in 1916 it has been captured and recaptured by the Germans and French 16 times.
After the war in 1918, Fleury-devant-Douaumont was declared as a village that "Died for France". Like eight other villages on the Verdun front, the grateful nation preserved its juridical personality.
Here are photos of what the village looks like today. The stone pillars show what building was located there before. The white wooden pillars show where the road once went. It's really hard to imagine that here was a village before when you're actually there.
(Chapelle Notre-Dame de l'Europe, the only building in Fleury)
"You will remember that there were men, women, children who lived there, who loved this Lorraine landscape, who plowed its heavy, meager soil. There were men here who lived at peace, and the mortal remains of their ancestors are now mingled with those of dead soldiers! All are now protected by the Ossuary where the soul of battlefield
still quivers and where burns the eternal flame of devotion."
-Gerard Canini
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