En un regard
Le château en bref
The Verdun underground citadel is a network of galleries dug at the end of the 19th century beneath the citadel of Verdun, in the Meuse department in the Grand Est region.
The upper citadel was built in the 17th century to the plans of Jean Errard, after the town was captured by King Henry II in 1552. Once the town was definitively annexed to the Kingdom of France in 1648, Vauban was tasked with improving its fortifications. After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, the town joined the Séré de Rivières system and found itself at the centre of the fortified place of Verdun, made up of numerous forts.
The underground citadel, or lower citadel, was dug at the end of the 19th century and totalled 7 km of galleries by the end of the First World War. It served at once as a shelter, a command post and a supply base. On 10 November 1920, it hosted the ceremony designating the Unknown Soldier, who rests beneath the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile in Paris.
The citadel has been listed as a monument historique since 24 October 1929.