Memorial' 14-18The Ring of MemoryNotre-Dame-de-Lorette

The Ring of Memory, International Memorial of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette

The largest engraved memorial in the world, covering nearly 300 meters, lists the names of the 580,000 soldiers, nurses and auxiliary workers of all nationalities who fell in Flanders and Artois during the First World War.

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Symbol of peace

Facing the main entrance to the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette National Necropolis, a vast ellipse appears to be balanced on the slope of the plateau overlooking the village of Ablain-Saint-Nazaire.

579,606 names are engraved in this Ring of Remembrance; those of combatants and auxiliaries, men and women, who died on the territory of Nord-Pas-de-Calais during the First World War, without any distinction of nationality, rank, or religion:

– 241,214 names of soldiers, workers, nurses, who belonged to the British imperial army.

– The names of the 173,876 German soldiers buried in the military cemeteries of the Nord and Pas-de-Calais.

– 106,012 “Died for France”, from all over the French Colonial Empire, as well as the soldiers of the Foreign Legion.

– The monument also bears the names of Belgian and Portuguese soldiers buried in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, as well as those of Russian and Romanian prisoners of war in the service of the German army.

©Names of fallen soldiers engraved on the panels of the Ring of Remembrance|Inconnu

Ring of Memory / Ablain-Saint-Nazaire — ©View of the sky and the plaques bearing the names of soldiers killed in the First World War|Pauline Roches

A memorial like no other

Designed by the architect Philippe Prost, the Anneau de la Mémoire is different from the memorials designed in the aftermath of the Great War. It is not a massive rectilinear monument on which the engraved names physically exceed the height of the visitor.

A fragile peace

The Ring of Memory is a horizontal structure, whose overhang on the slope of the stage gives the impression of the fragility of the structure. Moreover, its elliptical shape creates a gathering momentum, like a round, that allows one to scan all the names engraved on the copper-plated metal panels with a single glance. Inaugurated on September 11, 2014, at the opening of the period marking the Centenary of the First World War, this Ring of Memory is thus a monumental invitation to the citizens of today, to remember together that peace is not a state: peace is a fragile achievement.