War memorials

France: Meuse-Argonne Monument

Architect: John Russell Pope
Owners: American Battle Monuments Commission
Location: Montefaucon-D'Argonne

The Meuse-Argonne at Butte de Montfaucon consists of a colossal Greek Doric column rising above a vast flight of steps commemorating the victory of the American offensive in the last months of the war. On top of the column is a figure representing Liberty, the whole thing over 200 feet high. The monument was designed by John Russell Pope, architect of the National Gallery and Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C. It was a difficult site as the French government had declared the ruined village un vestige de la guerre; that is, the ruins and the churned up landscape had to be left as a memorial. In 1926 Pope submitted three alternative schemes, of which the column design was chosen as the most imposing. The following year the A.M.B.C. asked Pope to make the column even bigger. The monument was inaugurated in the presence of the French President, Albert Lebrun, in 1937.

Gavin Stamp