The Cross at Mt. Canigou

81 years ago, between July 18 and 23, 1943, during the Nazi occupation of France,  a group of Catholic scouts decided to create a large metal cross on Mount Canigou in the Pyrenees between Spain and France, at 2,783 meters above sea level (9130 feet.) A metal worker Georges Margouet was tasked with creating the cross, and spent 5 months working on this project. The cross itself weighed 112 kilos, (246 lbs) and all the young boys enthusiastically took the trip up the mountain to erect the cross. Many of them were malnutritioned because of the war. Along the road, a few priests joined them praying the Stations of the Cross. When they reached the top, one of the priests celebrated Mass in very cold weather. Now since they didn’t ask permission to erect this cross, the Nazis discovered it and blew it up with explosives. The boys scouts were of course disappointed , but they collected all the pieces that were salvageable and crafted another cross, larger and stronger, and and set it in place on the 30th of July 1961, where it still stands.