Verdun (city.net), located very strategically at the mouth of the Meuse and near the Northern French border, has been caught up in many wars over the centuries. But it was during the First World War (1916) that it became a symbol of French resistance when over 400,000 French died defending the citadel.
Verdun, the Roman Virodunum, was a seat of a bishop already in the 3rd century. In 843 the famous Treaty of Verdun was signed here, in which the grandsons of Charlemagne divided up his empire into the present day Germany, France and Lorraine. During the Middle Ages it was a free city belonging to the German empire, but in 1552 it was occupied by the French king Henry II and finally joined France along with Metz and Toul. Since the 17th century it had become the strongest fortification in France. From February 21 to July 12, 1916, German soldiers tried in vain to conquer the city and its fortification. 500,000-800,000 lives were lost on both sides of the war. Noteworthy battlefield sights include the Ossuaire de Douaumont, a repository for the unidentified remains of 130,000 French and German soldiers, the Fort Douaumont and the Tranchée des Baïonnettes, a mass grave - covered by a slab of concrete - in which French soldiers are supposed to be buried standing upright, with bayonnettes still sticking out of the ground.