Fleury-devant-Douaumont

Fleury-devant-Douaumont (French pronunciation: [flœʁi dəvɑ̃ dwomɔ̃], literally Fleury before Douaumont) is a commune in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.

During the Battle of Verdun in 1916 it was captured and recaptured by the Germans and French 16 times, with all structures being completely destroyed.

Since then, it has been declared to have "died for France", and this remains unoccupied (official population: 0), as have the communes of Bezonvaux, Beaumont-en-Verdunois, Haumont-près-Samogneux, Louvemont-Côte-du-Poivre and Cumières-le-Mort-Homme.

During the war, the town was completely destroyed and the land rendered so uninhabitable that officials decided not to rebuild it.

As the land around the municipality was polluted with corpses, ammunition, explosives and poisonous gas, it was deemed too contaminated for farming to resume.