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The national military necropolis de Compiègne is listed as a world heritage site.
From November 11, 1914, just 15 km from the first trenches, Compiègne became a hospital town, which played a major role during the conflict, particularly from the point of view of medical advances in the treatment of war wounds. Between 1914 and 1918, no less than 26 temporary hospitals operated in the city and its outskirts.
It was in January 1917 that the Compiègne city council asked the military and health authorities to create a military cemetery. Until then, soldiers who died in city hospitals were buried in communal cemeteries. The soldiers, who are buried there, died as a result of their wounds, but also of illnesses. Most of them belong to the colonial troops.
We note the presence of numerous graves of soldiers from the former French colonies (Mali, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Tunisia) or from a current overseas department (Martinique). In addition, the presence of 367 Muslim graves testifies to the respect for the religion of the deceased during the burials of the Great War.
It contains 3.257 bodies, 264 of which are in ossuaries. There are also the graves of 81 Britons (26 of whom could not be identified), 11 Russians, 1 Belgian (died July 21, 1917), 1 German (in one of the ossuaries) and 3 Frenchmen killed during the Second World War.
Admission fees
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