Hartmannswillerkopf or Old Armand

Perched at 956 meters above the Alsace plain, this promontory was the scene of fierce battles during the First World War. Between 1914 and 1918, around 30,000 French and German soldiers lost their lives here under a hail of shells, gas, and flames. This strategic point, fiercely contested, changed hands four times in 1915 alone. The extremely intense fighting turned the landscape into a field of ruins, forever marked by the horrors of trenches and deadly assaults.

Today, this site, classified as a historic monument, houses one of the four national monuments dedicated to this tragic period. It bears witness to the harshness of the battles and the memory of the men who died here. Nearby, the Franco-German Historial offers a comprehensive exhibition on the First World War, providing an overall view of the conflict and serving as a link to the adjacent monument.