This monument to Our Lady of the Marne is located just east of the village of Barcy on the west end of the massive battlefield of the First Battle of the Marne. It the stopping point of the initial German invasion of 1914. It also commemorates Saint Genevieve (patron saint of Paris and also of Barcy). According to legend, in 451, she saved Paris from the invasion of the Huns, the invader from the East.
The bronze statue, the work of the sculptor Louis Maubert (1875–1949), presents the Virgin and Child. The monument was built by a subscription committee, and by the Marbeau family, in particular Edouard Marbeau, executor of the will of his brother, the late bishop of Meaux, Monsignor Emmanuel Marbeau (1844–1921). The memorial is tribute to the wish expressed by the bishop on 8 September 1914, in the cathedral of Meaux, to build a monument of recognition, if victory prevailed. The memorial replaced an immense wooden cross, erected just after the battle, on the initiative of Monsignor Marbeau, who also acquired a plot of this land for the construction of the future monument. It was dedicated on 9 June 1924, before nearly 4,000 people.
Because of its explicitly religious character, secular French officials reportedly do not hold regular ceremonies here as they do at countless military sites around the county. Surrounded by farm fields, The Virgin and Her Child receive only a few visitors each day and, so, qualifies as one of our "Lonesome Memorials."
The principal inscriptions on the monument:
SEPTEMBER 1914
AT NOTRE-DAME DE LA MARNE
WISH OF SG MGR EMMANUEL MARBEAU BISHOP OF MEAUX
Bishop Marbeau later chose a second himself:
YOU WILL NOT GO FURTHER
Unfortunately, Bishop Marbeau was never able to see his project completed; he died on 31 1921.
How to get there: Located 3 miles north of the Great War Museum at Meaux on Road D97, .25 miles west of the village of Barcy
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