VERDUN THROUGH THREE WARS 1870 - 1945

1870–1945: three conflicts in less than a century, including two world wars, and one city, guardian of France — Verdun.

Verdun, elevated to a national symbol by the Battle of 1916, was also occupied twice by the Second Reich between 1870 and 1873, then by the Third Reich in 1940–1944. From its vast remodelled citadel to the Vauban ramparts and its considerable barracks complex with two rings of forts, Verdun was transformed for the wars that also shook and scarred it.

What remains of these transformations? Whether major features or minor details, they reveal the evolution of the military city through the great historical upheavals from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. How did the urban fabric of Verdun evolve between militarisation, devastation, reconstruction and occupation?

None of this escaped the camera lens. Photographic collections bear witness to it. It is the photographic document that allows us to grasp the full extent of the transformations of the city and its suburbs. The Faubourg Pavé, the Jardin Fontaine, Glorieux, as well as the communes of Belleville and Thierville — which today make up the greater urban area — are inseparable from Verdun.

The photographs gathered here do not constitute an exhaustive survey or an urban study, but rather a stroll guided simply by curiosity and a desire to reveal forgotten aspects or past events of a city with an extraordinary destiny.