Monument à la mémoire des Fusiliers marins

English translation

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History

Archive sources do not allow us to know the circumstances of the commissioning or erection of the monument. We know only that the monument was built at the initiative of the Amicale of former Fusiliers Marins thanks to a national subscription, and that the general architecture was due to Jean-Marie Morel (1892-1974), architect of the city, and the sculpture of the monument to Félix Alexandre Desruelles (1865-1943), great specialist in war memorials. Its inauguration was reported in the press: it took place on 11 November 1929, in the presence of the Minister of the Marine, Georges Leygues, Admiral Ronarc'h, representatives of the Belgian Army and the British Royal Navy. Built in pink sandstone, a material frequently used at that time, the monument presents itself as a kind of high altar. The monument is set on a terrace in bricks forming a checkerboard, flanked by a series of twice three blocks of sandstone retaining chains, closing the side accesses. It offers a symmetrical layout, on either side of a column, like a tall mast topped by a statue of Joan of Arc separating two blocks on which are depicted the fusiliers marins. This layout is due to Morel, architect of the city. The bas-reliefs of Desruelles are distributed on either side, each composed of four blocks forming a frieze seemingly inspired by the Parthenon representing sailors in action. The profiles of the faces are individualized: on the right a group of cannoneer-sailors, on the left a winged victory, whose arm stretched towards victory and wings project beyond the frame, leads the fusiliers marins. At the foot of the soldiers, the names of the battles. In a medallion, Admiral Ronarc'h, and a citation to fight intended for the fusiliers marins. This commemorative monument to the memory of French sailors who fell during land combat in the First World War is, to our knowledge, the only monument dedicated to fusiliers-marins, a corps which distinguished itself in the fighting of the Great War, on land and at sea. The sculptor, Félix Desruelles, is a specialist in commemorative monuments and war memorials. In the region, he is notably the author of the monument to the Fusillés lillois, the war memorial of Arras, that of Auchel (registered historic monument). He creates here a particularly original work, the presentation of soldiers in action led by Victory inspired by the frieze of the Parthenon, in an Art Deco version: choice of pink sandstone, symmetry of the layout emphasised by the statue of Joan of Arc set on a column.