Article published in Tendance Ouest – 24/01/2025.
In 2028, Ravenoville will be home to Europe’s first museum dedicated to prisoners of war. Construction is scheduled to start in 2025.
10 years after its first sketch, the Ravenoville museum project is finally taking shape. On Thursday January 23, the Warren J. Kennedy Association, which is spearheading the project, came to present the dossier to Sainte-Mère-Eglise’s elected representatives at the town council meeting.
Europe’s first museum dedicated to prisoners of war
The museum originally planned for the Marmion farm in Ravenoville will finally be built in the village of Ravenoville, a few hundred meters from the church. ” It will be located on a 1.2 hectare plot of land, close to the site of the former prison camp,” explains Maya Duburch, the association’s general delegate.
On the ground, the museum itself will be divided into three interconnected buildings, providing 750m² of exhibition space. “The museum will cover four main themes: camp management, international law when holding prisoners of war, the pace of life in the camps and the return of prisoners to their homeland”, explains the association’s general delegate. At the center of these four themes, a narrative model of the Ravenoville-Foucarville camp will enable visitors to situate each element concretely.
“Outside, a 6 to 8-meter-high gazebo will be built opposite the site where the camp was located until 1947,” explains Dominique Imbert, the association’s president, ” this will enable visitors to imagine the camp in real size on today’s countryside.”
Scheduled to open in 2028
The project, with a total cost of over 9.5 million euros, has been under study for over 10 years. “Everything really took shape in 2021 when the daughter of Colonel Warren J. Kennedy – who commanded the camp – gave us her father’s archives,” explains Maya Duburch. The project has been very well received by the local authorities. ” Hervé Morin gave us a lot of encouragement, and in fact 80% of the funding came from the European Union, the Region, the Ministry of the Armed Forces and the Département”, explains the association’s representative.
At the presentation to the town council, the dossier was fully detailed. Work is scheduled to start in spring 2026. ” If everything goes according to plan, we should be able to submit the building permit in July 2025, while we find the contractors. Ground-breaking is scheduled for April 2026, for the museum to open in spring 2028″, asserts the association.
For the first year, teams are already expecting between 70,000 and 100,000 visitors.
By Soline Grellier
