A three-day programme of Armistice events for November 2016 has been announced by Lens’14-18 Centre d’Histoire Guerre et Paix, a Centenary museum opened last year in the French region of Artois.
The programme includes a procession on 11 November, Armistice Day, to the summit of Notre Dame de Lorette and the Ring of Remembrance, a new international memorial to those who fell in the First World War.
L’Anneau de la Mémoire, dedicated in 2014, breaks with tradition by listing the 579,606 soldiers of all nationalities killed in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Départements, their names recorded alphabetically on an elliptical ring of 500 golden metal plates.
Torchbearers will gather round the memorial for a sunset ceremony overlooking the plains of Northern France, scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.
From here, there’s a view towards Vimy Ridge, where Canada will host major commemorations in 2017 to mark the Centenary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Full details of the Lens’14-18 Museum Armistice weekend commemorations can be found here. There are also re-enactments and guided tours of the museum and the Notre Dame de Lorette promontory, where more than 40,000 soldiers lie buried in France’s biggest Great War cemetery.
The lantern tower and Basilica of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette form part of the original French national remembrance site created after WW1. L’Anneau de la Mémoire, opened by President Hollande on Armistice Day 2014, has been built alongside.
Like the Ring of Remembrance, the strikingly designed Lens’14-18 Museum, structured around cubular black concrete ‘chapels’, is dedicated to soldiers of all nations who fell in Artois and holds records of those commemorated on the ring.
Information & images: Musée Lens’ 14-18, Pas-de-Calais Tourism
Posted by: CN Editorial Team