Monument aux morts

English translation

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History

In its session of 31 August 1920, the municipal council of Chalon-sur-Saône decided on the creation of a committee for the erection of a war memorial "to the soldiers of Chalon-sur-Saône who died during the great war". The idea was then to install the memorial on the quays. On 4 November 1921, the chief engineer Conche replied to the mayor of Chalon-sur-Saône regarding the displacement of the departmental road, at the location of the towpath, in order to allow the installation, on quai Gambetta, of the future war memorial. The project proceeded and the sculptor Alfred Rochette of Saint-Étienne was selected. The location on quai Gambetta was validated by the municipal council on 21 December 1921. On 8 June 1923, the municipal council could announce that the file was complete (resources had been collected to pay for the memorial) and "decided on the erection of a memorial to Chalonnais who died for France; fixed its location on quai Gambetta, in place of the current bandstand; approved the project presented by Mr. Alfred Rochette, sculptor at Saint-Étienne, as well as the estimate of expenses...". The memorial was received on 20 October 1926 in the presence of the mayor, members of the committee and several architects: Edmond Malo, André Lesne; Chaumy and Pierre Boullier. The execution was praised but it appeared that the allegory was not that of the validated project. The reception document indicates that: "this modification is, according to the author Mr. Rochette, an improvement to his work, and this is moreover the opinion of Messieurs Tony Garnier, Architect, Grand Prix de Rome and Larrivé, sculptor, Director of the École des Beaux-arts of Lyon". It was finally inaugurated on 1 November 1926.

Description

Alfred Rochette's estimate allows us to describe the memorial precisely: "This memorial will be executed in Pouillenay stone with internal filling in ordinary masonry (...) It will be decorated as follows: a frieze of soldiers surrounding the memorial will have engraved battle names as background, at the centre, a winged figure of Victory. The inscriptions HONOR-GLORIA, A NOS MORTS POUR LA FRANCE, the dates 1914-1918, a war cross, decorate the upper part of the main face. On the rear face a panel is arranged, it is intended to receive the engraving of the names of deceased soldiers with, as a pediment, the inscription IN MEMORIAM". Installed on a square, along quai Gambetta, the Chalon-sur-Saône war memorial consists of a vast masonry mass, sculpted on its four sides. The life of soldiers at the front is represented there: - on the north side, soldiers in the trench. - on the rear, the list of those killed in combat is surrounded to the left by an evocation of the home front and arms manufacturing; to the right by aviation. - on the south side, a wounded or dead soldier evacuated from the front. - on the front of the memorial, a victory and a frieze of soldiers departing for combat with in the background a tank and a boat. Surmounting all these scenes, the names of the great combat zones of the First World War are indicated, from the North Sea to the Dardanelles.