Trottoir National Cemetery

About

The Trottoir is a national necropolis located on the territory of Les Éparges in the Meuse, where French soldiers killed in the vicinity of the First World War are buried. Created in 1915 as a cemetery on the front, following the fighting in the Haute Meuse, it was later rebuilt after war and became a national necropolis. It is located in a valley called the Hadimel ravine, on the edge of a federal forest, at the foot of the Eparges ridge, 800 metres from the village and about 20 kilometres southeast of Verdun.

French and German fought hard for the control of this ridge, first on the surface, then in April 1915 by a mine war. The necropolis welcomed after the war the bodies exhumed from nearby military cemeteries, including those of the Bois and Marquanterre. It has 2108 graves, including ten Muslim and an ossuary of 852 bodies.

The necropolis was completely redone in 1958 and its entry in 2013. In the centre of the cemetery, there is a large stone stele with an integrated cross on which are inscribed the main places of combat: ravine of Fragaoule, wood of the point of Monville, ravine of Sonvaux, calvary...