The Arboretum de Craonne (7 hectares ) is an arboretum

Arboretum

An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...

 located near Craonne

Craonne

Craonne is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France.-History:It was the site of the Napoleonic Battle of Craonne in 1814. The former town was totally destroyed by artillery in World War I and is now an arboretum; today's town was rebuilt in the 1920s.-References:*...

, Aisne

Aisne

Aisne is a department in the northern part of France named after the Aisne River.- History :Aisne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Île-de-France, Picardie, and Champagne.Most of the old...

, Picardie

Picardie

Picardy is one of the 27 regions of France. It is located in the northern part of France.-History:The historical province of Picardy stretched from north of Noyon to Calais, via the whole of the Somme department and the north of the Aisne department...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. The arboretum was planted on the site of the former village of Craonne, totally devastated in April-May 1917 by French artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

 during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, and serves as its memorial. Its cratered terrain is a reminder of the war's extreme destruction. Today the arboretum contain 57 varieties of trees, together with signs displaying maps and photos of the former village. It is open daily without charge.