Pierrefeu-du-Var - Monument to the heroes of the Dixmude

  • department: Var
  • town: Pierrefeu-du-Var
  • naming: Monument to the heroes of the Dixmude
  • address : Wilson Place
  • authors: Michel ROUX-SPITZ (architect), Armand MARTIAL (statuary)
  • date: 1925
  • protection: unprotected building
  • label patrimoine XXe: Commission régionale du patrimoine et des sites du 15 March 2007

The Dixmude, a former German airship, was offered to the Allies in 1918 as war damage. Based in the Centre de Cuers-Pierrefeu (Var), it was modified and made many flights between 1920 and 1923, until it was diverted by a storm during a mission to study the air conditions and exploded, hit by lightning, in December 1923, off Sicily. The 50 people, crew and passengers, died in this accident.
As soon as the official notice of the disappearance of the airship, a committee, on the initiative of the municipality, was formed in Pierrefeu to appeal to public generosity. A subscription was opened, to which 622 municipal councils in 33 departments and 21 general councils responded with grants. Public and private funding complemented the funding, confirming the national character of this monument.
By decree of the President of the Republic dated November 24, 1924, the Pierrefeu City Council was authorized to offer a site on a public square to erect the monument. A competition, organized the following year, was won by Michel Roux-Spitz, architect in Paris, 1st Grand Prix de Rome, and Armand Martial, statuary in Paris, also Grand Prix de Rome. The construction was carried out by the Maison Barbedienne (Paris), which also contributed financially.

The monument, 14 meters high, is built in imperial granite of Corsica and rises on the square Jean Jaurès, from where it dominates the surrounding plain. It has the shape of two monumental wings adjoined, and has an inscription at the front recalling the names of the crew and passengers who died on board in 1923.

  • Editor: Eve Roy, drac paca crmh, 2006
  • Source: explanatory panel attached to the monument (inaugural speech by Henri Paguet, 22 May 1927)

Notice imprimable

Base nationale mérimée