 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Notre Dame de Lorette" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Notre Dame de Lorette (Ablain St.-Nazaire French Military Cemetery) | |
|---|---|
| France | |
 The church seen in October 2022. | |
| For Bitter and bloody battles inAblain-Saint-Nazaire area. | |
| Location | 50°24′4″N2°43′8″E / 50.40111°N 2.71889°E /50.40111; 2.71889 (Notre Dame de Lorette) |
| Designed by | Louis-Marie Cordonnier, Jacques Cordonnier |
| Official name | Funerary and memory sites of the First World War (Western Front) |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | i, ii, vi |
| Designated | 2023(45thsession) |
| Reference no. | 1567-PC10 |
Notre Dame de Lorette (French pronunciation:[nɔtʁ(ə)damdəlɔʁɛt]), also known asAblain St.-Nazaire French Military Cemetery, is the world's largest French military cemetery.[1] It is the name of a ridge,basilica, and French national cemetery northwest ofArras at the village ofAblain-Saint-Nazaire. The high point of the hump-backed ridge stands 165 metres high and – withVimy Ridge – utterly dominates the otherwise flat Douai plain and the town of Arras.
The ground was strategically important during theFirst World War and was bitterly contested in a series of long and bloody engagements between the opposing French and German armies. It was the focal point of three battles:
The Battles of Artois were as costly in French lives as the better-knownBattle of Verdun. As with numerous other sites across France, Notre Dame de Lorette became a national necropolis, sacred ground containing the graves of French andColonial fallen as well as an ossuary, containing the bones of those whose names were not marked.
In total, the cemetery and ossuary hold the remains of more than 40,000 soldiers, as well as the ashes of many concentration camp victims.
The basilica and memorial buildings were designed by the architectLouis-Marie Cordonnier and his son Jacques Cordonnier, and built between 1921 and 1927.
A small building was raised in 1727 by the painterNicolas Florent Guilbert, who had made a successful pilgrimage toLoreto (Italy), to shelter a statue of the Virgin Mary. It was destroyed in 1794, rebuilt in 1816 and transformed in 1880.
.jpg)
