Did you know? There are six towns in France that have mayors, but no residents
French mayors are a vital part of the smooth running of the country, from those who have charge of just a few houses to the multi-million euro budgets overseen by the mayors of Paris, Marseille or Lyon. But did you know there are six mayors in France that don’t actually have a single constituent?
The six mayors each oversee a small village near the river Meuse, close to Verdun in the northeast of France.
The six towns - Beaumont-en-Verdunois, Bezonvaux, Cumières-le-Mort-Homme, Fleury-devant-Douaumont, Haumont-près-Samogneux et Louvemont-Côte-du-Poivre - can be visited year round.
The reason why no one lives in these communities is that they were all destroyed during the devastating World War I Meuse-Argonne Offensive, and were never rebuilt due to the significant number of corpses and munitions still present in the ground surrounding the buildings that remained.
But the French government decided to preserve them as a memorial. Each mayor is appointed by the area's Préfet for a term of six years and charged with the preservation of the village as a sort of World War I memorial.
Their role involves maintenance and upkeep of the grounds, buildings, and memorials, but also the identification and proper burial of the remains of soldiers on both sides that are still being discovered.
‘Here lies Fleury-devant-Douaumont, destroyed in 1916’. Photo: Les Meloures, Wikimedia Commons
France's other 'martyr village' dates from World War II.
This is Oradour-sur-Glane in central France, near to Limoges. In this village on June 10th 1944, 643 men, women and children were massacred by Nazi forces, who also set the village on fire.
After the war it was decided to leave the village as a memorial to those who had died there, while a new community was built nearby.
These days it is preserved as it was, and a large visitor centre has been added telling the story of the village and the massacre.
https://www.thelocal.fr/20220610/frances-martyr-village-what-happened-at-oradour-sur-glane/
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The six mayors each oversee a small village near the river Meuse, close to Verdun in the northeast of France.
The six towns - Beaumont-en-Verdunois, Bezonvaux, Cumières-le-Mort-Homme, Fleury-devant-Douaumont, Haumont-près-Samogneux et Louvemont-Côte-du-Poivre - can be visited year round.
The reason why no one lives in these communities is that they were all destroyed during the devastating World War I Meuse-Argonne Offensive, and were never rebuilt due to the significant number of corpses and munitions still present in the ground surrounding the buildings that remained.
But the French government decided to preserve them as a memorial. Each mayor is appointed by the area's Préfet for a term of six years and charged with the preservation of the village as a sort of World War I memorial.
Their role involves maintenance and upkeep of the grounds, buildings, and memorials, but also the identification and proper burial of the remains of soldiers on both sides that are still being discovered.
France's other 'martyr village' dates from World War II.
This is Oradour-sur-Glane in central France, near to Limoges. In this village on June 10th 1944, 643 men, women and children were massacred by Nazi forces, who also set the village on fire.
After the war it was decided to leave the village as a memorial to those who had died there, while a new community was built nearby.
These days it is preserved as it was, and a large visitor centre has been added telling the story of the village and the massacre.
https://www.thelocal.fr/20220610/frances-martyr-village-what-happened-at-oradour-sur-glane/
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