By Rizhlaine F. Posted on April 13, 2021 at 1:10 p.m. Updated April 13, 2021 at 1:11 p.m.
Did you know? In Paris, in the district of Les Halles, there was once a well-known cemetery in the capital: the cemetery of the innocent (or the saints-innocents). Discover its fascinating history and the few vestiges that remain.
The face of Paris has transformed over time, and sometimes we rediscover with surprise the past of certain places. This is particularly the case of Halles district. At the place of the present Place Joachim-du-Bellay was then a unmissable cemetery of Paris at the time: the Cemetery of the Innocents.
The origins of this graveyard go back to Merovingians and for nearly 1000 years it hosted the remains of Parisians until its closure in 1780. It is estimated that two million Parisians were buried there. A first chapel in honor of Saint-Michel was erected there before being replaced by a larger church around 1130 by order of Louis VI le Gros. It was dedicated to Saints-innocents, hence the name.
The cemetery of the Innocents a key place in the daily life of Parisians
In addition to thechurch, mass graves and a fontaine, the Cemetery of the Innocents also included two recluses. These small cells accommodated recluses and recluses who were then walled up there. The first recluse of the Innocents was the most famous in Paris. It had two grilled loopholes, one giving on the outside in order to receive food and the other inside the church in order to allow the recluse person to be able to attend religious ceremonies.
Four names of recluses of the cemetery of the Innocents. The first one, Alix La Bourgeotte will have remained 46 years in her recluse. The second, Jeanne La Verriere, had expressed the will to live recluse whileAlix La Bourgeotte had been in his cell for 18 years. A second recluse was then built. Renée de Vendômois convicted of adultery and the murder of her husband was condemned to end her days in a recluse. Finally the fourth known recluse was a widow named Jeanne Pannoncelle.
The least we can say is that this graveyard was very popular with parisians. True place of life and meeting, one found there by day traders and walkers. At nightfall, however, the graveyard became less frequent. There were buried the remains of 22 Parisian parishes to which are added those of the Hôtel-Dieu, the bodies of the victims of the black plague of 1348 as well as those of unidentified unknown persons from the mortuary of the City, including those drowned from the Seine and people who died on the public highway who then ended up in mass graves.
The end of the cemetery of the Innocents
So that made too many bodies, for a cemetery that was too small. It was also said that his land ate his corpse in nine days. Mass graves were added around the cemetery to accommodate the bones that were removed. The Charnier des Lingères located on the south side of the old cemetery, parallel to the rue de la Ferronnerie, was distinguished by a fresco representing a dance of death. We could then see represented in turn nobles, religious representatives, peasants and even sovereigns forced to follow the dead, thus reminding that no one escapes this fatality.
But after a thousand years of activity, the graveyard, located in the heart of Paris, was unsanitary. The ground level would have even exceeded by 2.50m that of the neighboring streets, it was so overloaded. Otherwise, a law dating from 1765 which prohibited cemeteries inside towns for reasons of insalubrity. A decisive event led to the final closure of the cemetery of the innocents in 1780. Under the weight of corpses buried, a partition gave way and the remains of Parisians poured into the cellar of a restaurateur. The cemetery was then destroyed in 1786.
The remains of the Innocents cemetery
Today there are very few vestiges of this Parisian cemetery. The remains of those who were buried there are now in the Paris Catacombs. On the place Joachim-du-Bellay, the Fountain of the Innocents was the one that was attached to theChurch of the Innocents, now destroyed. At n ° 8 of the rue de la Ferronnerie and at n ° 15 of the street of the innocents, we can find arches that once supported two of the cemetery mass graves. Remains are also preserved at the Louvre Museum and at Carnavalet Museum.
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