During the First World War, the town of Fismes was turned into a battlefield and 90% destroyed. The fighting in the summer of 1918 was especially violent: 13,600 American soldiers lost their lives there.
The municipality of Fismes wished to commemorate the links between the town and the Americans by their shared history during the Great War with the creation of Fismes Memorial 18. In the Vesle square, near the Pont Mémorial (Memorial Bridge), the Fismes Memorial 18 was inaugurated on 15 September 2018. Thirteen figures made of wood several metres high, blackened as if by fire, were arranged in small groups and from now on they watch over the square and its surrounds.
The creation of the work was entrusted to the internationally renowned Reims sculptor Christian Lapie.
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A place of unprecedented memory, the subject of international-level scientific, cultural, and touristic knowledge all at once, but also a moving tribute to a painful past.