Le Mont-Valérien - Haut lieu de la mémoire nationale

Dominating Paris with its 162m height, Mont-Valérien is full of history. A medieval religious site, a fortress was built there in 1841. The name 'Mont-Valerien' reminds us of certain events from the war of 1870, and also those of the Commune. During the Second World War, it took on a particularly tragic connotation given that it served as a place of execution. A moving trail makes it possible to follow the path travelled by those who walked to their torture: from the chapel whose walls still hold the graffiti scratched in by the prisoners to the clearing where the execution posts were positions, torn apart by gunfire. In homage to all the deaths during the 1939-1945 war, a memorial was erected and opened by General de Gaulle on 18 June 1960. Sixteen high-reliefs in bronze, each one created by different sculptors illustrate allegories of fighting against the enemy. Inside the crypt lie sixteen cenotaphs with the remains of soldiers from the Armée Régulière and the Armée des Ombres. The fortress, a military compound, also houses the Museum of Signals and the Museum of Military Pigeon-Racing.