The Great Tomb

On the 5th of September 1914, the Germans are at the gates of Paris, and battles are raging in the surrounding countryside of Meaux.

It is on the hill between Chauconin Neufmontiers and Villeroy that Lieutenan Charles Péguy rush forward his troops in order to save their Moroccan comrades, struggling against the Germans not far from here.

The fights are violent and an important number of men are killed. A large proportion of these men are now buried in the “Great Tomb”, not far from the place they died. After the war, the bodies are taken back to military cemeteries. The Great Tomb is thus one of the last collective tombs in France, in which soldiers and officers are buried.