Oradour-sur-Glane Church
The photo above shows the Oradour-sur-Glane
church before it was destroyed. Note the spires on top of the
towers and the brass ball on top of the highest spire. To the
right is the roof of the Market Place and behind it is a house.
The photo above was taken in 1938 before
the destruction of the village. Note the old car which appears
to be an early 1930ies model. The church is shown in the upper
left of the photo. All the steeples above the towers and the
church are now completely gone, destroyed by the fire set by
the SS soldiers, which spread from the floor of the church up
into the towers. To the right of the church in the photo, the
building with the shutters on the upstairs window is the presbytery
or presbyterie, which was the home of the Catholic priests. The
presbytery garden is to the right of the presbytery, but not
visible in this photo.
The tree in the center of the photo is
still there; it has grown so big that a photo taken from the
same spot today would hide the presbytery. The spot where the
car is parked is approximately where a gate was placed across
the entrance road when the ruins were declared to be a historical
site. Tourists were formerly allowed to enter the town through
this gate. Now there is only one entrance, through the Center
of Memory, which opened in 1999. The Bouchoule barn, where some
of the men were killed, is in the foreground on the extreme right
in the photo above.
|