Hiking trail D06: Le Petit Donon, sanctuary of the Great War

The terrible Battle of the Donon on 20 and 21 August 1914 marked the beginning of the French retreat. Following 12 hours of shelling and bayonet attacks, the battle saw between 500 and 2000 soldiers die on the slopes of the Donon. In 1916, the German authorities set up around 180 pink sandstone gravestones to the memory of the French and German soldiers who fell here. Le Petit Donon, after being the site of a battle, became an open-air necropolis for the soldiers on both sides.