Monument aux morts

This work dedicated to the Marignanese who died for the Fatherland and the Republic, was born on the Cours Mirabeau, on September 5, 1920, in front of the entrance to the town hall, after some vicissitudes Indeed, during a town council meeting on March 2, 1919, Mayor Felix Roux and his council, offended by the initiative of an independent patriotic committee to erect a monument to the dead without the approval of the elected officials, decided to vote a subsidy of 1,500 francs to finance the work and thus regain control of the operations Finally, in a spirit of reconciliation, the mayor, his council and the famous committee joined forces and the monument became a reality after two years of effort It was entrusted to the sculptors Alexandre Magherini and Jacques Martin, winners of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Marseille in 1903. The two students of Emile Aldebert had in fact joined forces after the 1914-1918 war to create numerous monuments to the dead, such as those in Saint-Barnabé, La Valentine and Les Olives in Marseille The inauguration took place in Marignane in the presence of a young fourteen-year-old war orphan, Juliette Desbant, whose father Emmanuel Desbant was killed at Sénones, on the Vosges front on 7 November 1916. The teenager left a commemorative message sealed in the heart of the monument The names of the sixty-six victims who fell on the field of honour between 1914 and 1918 have been engraved In 1950, the work was moved to the esplanade, in front of the current town hall, then transferred in 2014 to the place du 11 Novembre The four and a half metre high ensemble is designed in the manner of a "victory obelisk" comprising, on the rear side, the national flag, on the upper part in the foreground, the medallion of the helmeted Poilu, framed by four lictor beams, emblems of the unity of the Nation. Under the medallion and on the four sides are the names of those killed in the 1914-1918 war (and then in successive wars), which are honoured and commemorated by an allegory of the town of Marignane crowned with battlements and resting on a shield stamped with the municipal coat of arms. Source: Jacques Marc Bonatti, municipal archivist - 2020