🏛️ Lieu
Patrimoine & Culture
Monument de 1870
📍 Nogent, Haute-Marne
· 52800 Nogent
À propos
The monument, erected in this square, commemorates the tragic events of the 1870 war, which took place in Nogent. From December 6 to 13, a violent skirmish took place here, pitting the Prussians against a detachment of the French Army known as "les mobiles". Prussian artillery bombarded the town. Nogent-le-Bas was largely destroyed and burnt down, leaving over 500 people homeless. Both the French and Prussian sides suffered heavy loss of life.
Originally, the monument consisted of a 7-metre-high cast-iron Ionic column surmounted by an angel. The base features four marble slabs, each surmounted by a "mobile" head with palms. The north plaque commemorates the event; the south, the public subscription; the east, the civilian victims; and the west, the military victims.
This monument was immortalized by Bernard Dimey in his poem "L'enfance" ("Childhood").
Sunday on the Bassin de Nogent :
Beyond this square, the panorama opens onto the green valley of the Traire. This landscape is typical of the Langres plateau, where the high, limestone areas are covered with forests. The valleys are clayey, giving way to grassland.
The area around the town has long been occupied by gardens and orchards cultivated by cutlers and farmers.
As well as being a source of nourishment, the surrounding countryside was also a place for relaxation.
As Mr. Petit, a retired schoolteacher at the end of the 19th century, put it:
"The workers of Nogent are generally quite family-minded. Sometimes on Sundays, and almost every Monday during the good season, cutlery families (father, mother, children, brothers, sisters, cousins), go to the country, to the woods or to their garden outside town, to spend the evening... They eat, drink, sing, laugh, smoke and dance...
Others prefer to stay in town, and Monsieur Petit continues:
"To look good and have a good reputation among the working class, you have to know how, every Sunday, after you've finished and delivered your work to the merchant, to do a bit of grooming (the Nogentais is a coquettish person), get yourself some fashionable cigarettes or at least half a cigar, waddle a little in the street and go and sit down at the café, not precisely to enjoy a drink, but to chat, gossip, play and have some first-class drinks!
At the time, there were almost thirty cafés in Nogent.
Originally, the monument consisted of a 7-metre-high cast-iron Ionic column surmounted by an angel. The base features four marble slabs, each surmounted by a "mobile" head with palms. The north plaque commemorates the event; the south, the public subscription; the east, the civilian victims; and the west, the military victims.
This monument was immortalized by Bernard Dimey in his poem "L'enfance" ("Childhood").
Sunday on the Bassin de Nogent :
Beyond this square, the panorama opens onto the green valley of the Traire. This landscape is typical of the Langres plateau, where the high, limestone areas are covered with forests. The valleys are clayey, giving way to grassland.
The area around the town has long been occupied by gardens and orchards cultivated by cutlers and farmers.
As well as being a source of nourishment, the surrounding countryside was also a place for relaxation.
As Mr. Petit, a retired schoolteacher at the end of the 19th century, put it:
"The workers of Nogent are generally quite family-minded. Sometimes on Sundays, and almost every Monday during the good season, cutlery families (father, mother, children, brothers, sisters, cousins), go to the country, to the woods or to their garden outside town, to spend the evening... They eat, drink, sing, laugh, smoke and dance...
Others prefer to stay in town, and Monsieur Petit continues:
"To look good and have a good reputation among the working class, you have to know how, every Sunday, after you've finished and delivered your work to the merchant, to do a bit of grooming (the Nogentais is a coquettish person), get yourself some fashionable cigarettes or at least half a cigar, waddle a little in the street and go and sit down at the café, not precisely to enjoy a drink, but to chat, gossip, play and have some first-class drinks!
At the time, there were almost thirty cafés in Nogent.
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