Memorial The Gozée Cross

Memorial Gozée Cross at the entrance of the cemetery in Leernes.

Text on the Information panel :
"After the war, a vast commemorative movement took hold of Belgium's towns, as was the case everywhere in Europe. Monuments would "make something" of this war, would help the nation rediscover an identity and a future, so that people had not died for nothing. Memorial steles and monuments were raised, plaques affixed to walls, and obelisks erected. They depicted the soldier, death or the dead, showing the various facets of the war as its contemporaries saw them. In practice, these monuments and memorials were placed on former battlefields or in the middle of community life: places of battle or death, near churches, in public squares, in cemeteries, etc.

Families also raised monuments in memory of the deceased. Mrs CHAMPETIER DE RIBES, who lost two sons for France, had a cross made by a local stonecutter. This cross, which was cut from a solid block from Fontaine-l'Evêque's Stenuick quarries, was initially placed (in 1916) in the Franco-German cemetery of Gozée, know as "La Pépinière" (the nursery), to mark the mass grave of soldiers in Leernes. In 1922 the French soldiers were transferred to Belle-Motte Cemetery in Aiseau-Presles. With Mrs CHAMPETIER DE RIBES's consent, Doctor HAUTAIN had the Gozée Cross moved to the entrance of Leernes's cemetery."

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