Thiepval Memorial.

©Steve Cymro/Shutterstock

Thiepval Memorial & Museum

Lille, Flanders & the Somme


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 names of more than 72,000 British and South African soldiers whose remains were never recovered or identified. Designed by Edwin Lutyens, it was built from 1928 to 1932 on the site of a German stronghold that was stormed on 1 July 1916, the bloody first day of the Battle of the Somme.

The museum, run by Péronne's outstanding Historial de la Grande Guerre, opened in 2016; displays include uniforms and large installations such as a replica of French fighter ace Georges Guynemer's aeroplane. The visitor centre's bookshop has an excellent selection of English books on WWI.

Its adjacent joint French and Commonwealth cemetery expresses Franco-British fraternity in death as in life.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Lille, Flanders & the Somme attractions

1. Ulster Memorial Tower

0.63 MILES

The 5000 Ulstermen who perished in the Battle of the Somme are commemorated by this 21m-high Gothic-style tower, an exact replica of Helen’s Tower at…

2. Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial

2.18 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…

3. La Grande Mine

2.57 MILES

Just outside the hamlet of La Boisselle, 4.5km northeast of Albert, this enormous crater looks like the site of a meteor impact. Some 100m across and 30m…

4. Fricourt German Cemetery

3.57 MILES

A stark reminder of the extensive loss of life on all sides of WWI, this cemetery is the burial place of 17,027 fallen German soldiers. Only 5000 of the…

5. Mémorial Sud-Africain Delville Wood

5.98 MILES

The memorial (1926) and star-shaped museum (1986), a replica of Cape Town's Castle of Good Hope, stand in the middle of Delville Wood, where in July 1916…

6. Ayette Indian & Chinese Cemetery

8.48 MILES

Towards the end of WWI, tens of thousands of Chinese labourers were recruited by the British government to perform noncombat jobs in Europe, including the…

7. Australian Corps Memorial Park

11.61 MILES

Adorned with a large bronze ‘Rising Sun’, the insignia of the Australian Imperial Force, this memorial 6.5km northeast of Villers-Bretonneux stands on the…

8. Historial de la Grande Guerre

13.89 MILES

For historical and cultural context, the best place to begin a visit to the Somme battlefields is the outstanding Historial de la Grande Guerre in Péronne…