The Ossuaire de Douaumont stands on the ridge above Verdun, its lantern tower visible for miles across the plateau. It was completed in 1932 to house the unidentified remains gathered from the battlefield of the 1916 Battle of Verdun — eventually at least 130,000 French and German soldiers. The interior is a long vaulted gallery of marble tombs, each engraved with the names of the missing of one sector of the battlefield.
The crypt below holds the bones themselves, visible through small windows on the outside of the lower walls. The huge cemetery in front of the ossuary contains 16,000 named French dead beneath identical white crosses. Allow at least an hour; the cinema in the entrance hall shows a short, sober film on the battle. The site is one of the most visited places of remembrance in Europe.