German and French Steles of Petit Donon

On August 20 and 21, 1914, the Battle of Donon erupted in a frenzy of violence: twelve hours of intense fighting, marked by heavy artillery fire and bayonet charges. This battle, which marked the beginning of the French retreat, resulted in between 500 and 2,000 casualties, whose bodies now rest on the slopes of Donon.

In 1916, German authorities replaced the temporary wooden crosses with nearly 180 pink sandstone steles, engraved in tribute to the French and German soldiers who fell here.

The Petit Donon, once the scene of a bloody war, has thus been transformed into an open-air necropolis, where the memory of both sides mingles in the silence of the mountains.