The most devastating battlefield in history — 300,000 dead in ten months, an ossuary of 130,000 unnamed soldiers, and a city that makes mirabelle plum candy
Verdun is a small city on the Meuse river in Lorraine where, from February to December 1916, the German and French armies fought the Battle of Verdun — the longest and one of the deadliest battles in history, with approximately 300,000 killed and 700,000 total casualties in a salient of 20 square kilometres. The landscape around the city was so thoroughly destroyed by artillery that 700 villages simply ceased to exist; the area (Zone Rouge) remains officially uninhabitable and is still contaminated with unexploded ordnance, heavy metals, and human remains. The Ossuary of Douaumont, built in 1…
Verdun was an independent episcopal city-state for centuries before becoming French in 1648 (Treaty of Westphalia). Its strategic position on the Meuse made it a fortress city — Vauban reinforced the citadel under Louis XIV. In the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) it was the last fortress to surrender to Germany, becoming a symbol of French resistance. The decision to defend Verdun in 1916 at any cost — despite its minimal strategic value — was partly symbolic: losing the fortress would be a psychological catastrophe. The battle consumed the entire French army in rotation (75% of all French divi…