Presentation of the Historial, Museum of the First World War

The idea of creating a museum devoted to the war of 1914-1918 originated with the Somme County Council in 1986. The project was envisioned in the context of the 70^th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, which involved combatants from more than twenty nations of the world. 

The museum was inaugurated on July 16 1992. The Corbusier-inspired architecture of white concrete designed by Henri-Edouard Ciriani is subtly built onto the brick château through which visitors enter. The Historial de la Grande Guerre was selected among the twenty ‘Major Cultural Projects in France’ of the time for the quality of its architecture.


This recent trilingual (English, French, German) museum is neither a memorial nor a military museum but a cultural museum which seeks to show how the lives of combatants and civilians were drastically modified by the war. Located on the very site of the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and the Battle of Picardy in 1918, the Historial de la Grande Guerre attempts to provide keys for understanding these events in all their dimensions and in so doing, to encourage reflection on the consequences of these battles, and the material traces which survive today.