Monument aux morts de la guerre 1914-1918

English translation

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History

The project to erect a cantonal war memorial leads the municipality of Bernay to reconsider the arrangement of place Carnot. The project is entrusted to the city architect, Gaston Duboc who draws up the arrangement of the place in order to enhance, by isolating it from the city, the project of Louis-Aimé Lejeune, who signs as sculptor and architect. The city architect notably creates a copse in the background in order to confer on the monument the spirit of a Greek temple according to the sculptor's wish. The work is inaugurated on 31 July 1921 and will have cost 140,000 francs, of which 40,000 for the casting of the central group.

Description

The monument is of the wall-stele type flanked by two return wings. It impresses by its monumental size and a staircase of six steps allows access to the main terrace. At the centre the Greek goddess Nike holds a laurel branch in her right hand and encloses with her wings a dead infantryman. On plaques fixed on the wall are inscribed the names, distributed by communes, of the 2,062 soldiers of the arrondissement who died for France.