Ring of Remembrance

Top choice in Lille, Flanders & the Somme

It's hard not to be overwhelmed by the waste and folly of the Western Front as you walk past panel after panel engraved with 579,606 tiny names: WWI dead from both sides who are listed in strict alphabetical order, without reference to nationality, rank or religion. Across the road from the memorial is a vast French military cemetery, Notre-Dame de Lorette; 6000 unidentified French soldiers are interred in the base of the Lantern Tower (1921). It's 13km west of Lens.

The site is floodlit after dark.

Contact

Address

chemin du Mont de Lorette. Ablain-St-Nazaire

Get In Touch

https://www.lens14-18.com/

Suggest an edit to this attraction

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Palais des Beaux Arts
21.97 MILES
Inaugurated in 1892, Lille's illustrious Fine Arts Museum claims France's second-largest collection after Paris' Musée du Louvre. Its cache of sublime…
Grand' Place & Place des Héros
7.97 MILES
Arras' two ancient market squares, the Grand' Place and the almost-adjacent, smaller place des Héros (also known as the Petite Place), are surrounded by…
La Piscine Musée d'Art et d'Industrie
28.26 MILES
An art deco municipal swimming pool built between 1927 and 1932 is now an innovative museum showcasing fine arts (paintings, sculptures, drawings) and…
Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Cemetery & Museum
15.5 MILES
The death toll was horrific – 1917 Australians and 519 Britons killed in just one day of fighting – yet the Battle of Fromelles was largely forgotten…
Vimy Ridge Canadian National Historic Site
2.73 MILES
After the war, the French attempted to erase signs of battle and return northern France to agriculture and normalcy. Conversely, the Canadians remembered…
Thiepval Memorial & Museum
24.06 MILES
Its silhouette instantly recognisable from afar, this 45m-high memorial to the missing of the Somme, 7.5km northeast of Albert, is inscribed with the…
Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial
22.87 MILES
This evocative memorial preserves part of the Western Front in the state it was in at fighting's end. The zigzag trench system, which still fills with mud…
Louvre-Lens
4.32 MILES
The innovative Louvre-Lens, opened in 2012, showcases hundreds of treasures from Paris' venerable Musée du Louvre in state-of-the-art exhibition spaces…

View more attractions

Nearby Lille, Flanders & the Somme attractions

1. Lens' 14-18 Museum

0.88 MILES

Housed in four black concrete cubes, this 2015-opened WWI museum provides an in-depth introduction to WWI on the Western Front. Over 300 extraordinary…

2. Vimy Ridge Canadian National Historic Site

2.73 MILES

After the war, the French attempted to erase signs of battle and return northern France to agriculture and normalcy. Conversely, the Canadians remembered…

3. Louvre-Lens

4.32 MILES

The innovative Louvre-Lens, opened in 2012, showcases hundreds of treasures from Paris' venerable Musée du Louvre in state-of-the-art exhibition spaces…

4. Hôtel de Ville

7.95 MILES

Arras' Flemish Gothic city hall dates from the 16th century but was completely rebuilt after WWI. Four géants (giants) live in the lobby. For a panoramic…

5. Grand' Place & Place des Héros

7.97 MILES

Arras' two ancient market squares, the Grand' Place and the almost-adjacent, smaller place des Héros (also known as the Petite Place), are surrounded by…

6. Carrière Wellington

8.73 MILES

Staging ground for the spring 1917 offensive, Wellington Quarry is a 20m-deep network of old chalk quarries expanded during WWI by tunnellers from New…

7. Neuve-Chapelle Indian Memorial

12.36 MILES

The Mémorial Indien, 27km southwest of Lille, records the names of 4700 soldiers and labourers of the Indian Army who 'have no known grave'. The 15m-high…

8. Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Cemetery & Museum

15.5 MILES

The death toll was horrific – 1917 Australians and 519 Britons killed in just one day of fighting – yet the Battle of Fromelles was largely forgotten…

View more attractions

placement: superzone
path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],

targeting:

{
  "url": "france/somme-battlefields-memorials/attractions/ring-of-remembrance/a/poi-sig/1535734/1323445",
  "destination": "Lille,-Flanders-&-the-Somme",
  "continent": "Europe",
  "country": "France",
  "region": "Lille,-Flanders-&-the-Somme",
  "position": "superzone"
}