This tomb has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since September 2023.
Burial
This cemetery was established by German troops in May 1917 to the east of the village of Bellefontaine near Tintigny in Wallonia. Today, 527 French and 298 German soldiers from various battles are buried there. Most of the casualties were caused by the fighting on August 22, 1914: During the "Battle of Radan", more than 17,000 French and Germans on foot and on horseback faced each other with around 70 cannons. It lasted one day and left an estimated 1,050 dead and 2,200 wounded.
The remains of French cuirassiers who were killed at the bridge over the Soye on May 12, 1940 lie in three graves.
History
The fallen of the "Battle of Radan" were originally buried in nine cemeteries. Today, only this cemetery near Bellefontaine remains. in 1957, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (German War Graves Commission) moved the dead of the First World War from the other cemeteries to this cemetery.
Special feature
The cemetery was built according to the plans of the Rhenish architect Ludwig Paffendorf, who designed numerous military cemeteries in southern Belgium from 1917 as a building construction officer in the civil administration for Wallonia. The masons from Tintigny left their initials on the side walls of the obelisk: Auguste Jacob and Fernand Jacob. During the restoration in the 1950s, two mausoleums that had stood on either side of the obelisk disappeared.
As this is a Franco-German cemetery, the Volksbund looks after it together with the French embassy in Belgium. The maintenance of the site is financed by France.
In September 2023, UNESCO declared 139 First World War cemeteries as World Heritage Sites. 24 German cemeteries are in the care of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. - Le Radan/Bellefontaine is one of them.
