Ivry Cemetery
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Ivry Cemetery (''cimetière parisien d'Ivry'') is one of the extramural cemeteries of
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, located in the neighbouring town of
Ivry-sur-Seine Ivry-sur-Seine () is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Paris's main Asian district, the Quartier Asiatique in the 13th arrondissement, borders the ...
in
Val-de-Marne Val-de-Marne (, "Vale of the Marne") is a department of France located in the Île-de-France region. Named after the river Marne, it is situated in the Grand Paris metropolis to the southeast of the City of Paris. In 2019, Val-de-Marne had a ...
, less than 500 metres outside Paris's intramural area. As well as a green space, it is a refuge for wild flora and fauna and bears the QualiPARIS label. It is made up of two enclosures separated by the rue Paul-Andrieux. The north enclosure opened in 1861, covering 7.69 hectares, with a western part bought in 1897 to become the separate Kremlin-Bicêtre Cemetery. The south enclosure was set up in 1874 and covers 20.69 hectares. In total the two enclosures contain 48,000 concessions split into 47 divisions, with 240,000 burials between 1861 and 2007 and still receiving 1,000 burials a year. It has 1800 trees, making it a green space under ecological management. Lucille Metout
« Ivry : le cimetière parisien regorge de vie sauvage »
''Le Parisien'' 10 November 2016
Since 2015 it has been mechanically weeded, with no more chemical weedkiller used. Plants have been grown up the cemetery walls and some paths grassed over. Nesting boxes and hedgehog shelters were installed by the ville de Paris's environmental services.
Tawny owl The tawny owl (''Strix aluco''), also called the brown owl, is a stocky, medium-sized owl in the family Strigidae. It is commonly found in woodlands across Europe, as well as western Siberia, and has seven recognized subspecies. The tawny owl' ...
s, hedgehogs, bats, foxes, hawks and woodpeckers were recorded at the cemetery late in 2016. Fruit trees were planted to feed bees and birds.


History


Paris Commune

In May 1871 it was the burial site for several of those sentenced to summary execution after the fall of the
Paris Commune The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...
. Estimates vary from 650 according to the fiercely anti-Commune
Maxime Du Camp Maxime Du Camp (8 February 1822 – 9 February 1894) was a French writer and photographer. Biography Born in Paris, Du Camp was the son of a successful surgeon. After finishing college, he indulged in his strong desire for travel, thanks to ...
, 5000 according to
Camille Pelletan Charles Camille Pelletan (28 June 1846 – 4 June 1915) was a French politician, historian and journalist, Minister of Marine in Emile Combes' '' Bloc des gauches'' (Left-Wing Blocks) cabinet from 1902 to 1905. He was part of the left-wing of ...
and 15,000 according to Xavier Raspail. The third of these estimates would make it the largest Communard burial site, though only excavation would allow a more precise number to be reached.


Communist Resistance

After the Second World War the
Parti communiste français The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a communist party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit with The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL group. The PCF was founded in 1920 by Marxi ...
(PCF) acquired an important plot, known as the "carré des fusillés", in the 39th division. It was the PCF's equivalent of the Pantheon. Jean-Pierre A. Bernard, « La liturgie funèbre des communistes (1924–1983) », ''Vingtième Siècle : Revue d'histoire'', no 9, January–March 1986, p. 43 It includes the graves of several resistance fighters executed in the clearing at the
Fort Mont-Valérien Fort Mont-Valérien ( French: ''Forteresse du Mont-Valérien'') is a fortress in Suresnes, a western Paris suburb, built in 1841 as part of the city's ring of modern fortifications. It overlooks the Bois de Boulogne. History Before Adolphe Thier ...
, including
Missak Manouchian Missak Manouchian (; , 1 September 1909 – 21 February 1944) was an Armenians, Armenian poet and communist activist. A survivor of the 1915–1916 Armenian genocide, he Armenians in France, moved to France from an orphanage in Lebanon in 1 ...
(1906–1944), Marcel Rajman (1923–1944), Fernand Zalkinow (1923–1942) and several members of the Affiche rouge, a resistance group made up of recent immigrants to France. Also in the plot are the grave of ethnologist, linguist, resistance fighter and founder of the
groupe du musée de l'Homme The ''Groupe du musée de l'Homme'' (French language, French for 'Group of the Museum of Man') was a movement in the French resistance to the German occupation of France during World War II, German occupation during the Second World War. In July ...
Boris Vildé Boris Vildé (25 June Old Style/8 July 1908 – 23 February 1942) was a linguist and ethnographer at the Musée de l'Homme, in Paris, France. He specialised in polar civilizations. Biography He was born in St. Petersburg into a family of Easte ...
(1908–1942) and wall plaques in memory of
Olga Bancic Olga Bancic (; born Golda Bancic; also known under her French ''nom de guerre'' Pierrette; 10 May 1912 – 10 May 1944) was a Jewish Romanian communist activist, known for her role in the French Resistance. A member of the FTP-MOI and Missak Ma ...
(1912–1944), symbol of foreign female volunteers in the
French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...
, and Pierre Rebière (1909–1942).
International Brigades The International Brigades () were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front (Spain), Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The International Bri ...
and author of ''L'Aveu''
Artur London Artur London (1 February 1915 – 8 November 1986) was a Czechoslovak communist politician and co-defendant in the Slánský Trial in 1952. Though he was sentenced to life in prison, he was freed in 1955; he then settled in France with his w ...
(1915–1986) and his wife Lise London (1916–2012), both PCF resistance fighters, are both also buried there.


Non-political executions

From 1885 to 1972 those executed at the
prison de la Santé A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various crim ...
were buried in the "carré des suppliciés" division 27 of the cemetery, totalling 128 burials.« Cimetière parisien d’Ivry : 128 guillotinés y sont entrés « la tête entre les jambes » »
''Le Parisien'', 31 October 2017
They include: * Paul Gorgulov (1895–1932), président Doumer's assassin * Doctor
Marcel Petiot Marcel André Henri Félix Petiot (17 January 1897 – 25 May 1946) was a French medical doctor and serial killer. He was convicted of multiple murders of Jews after the discovery of the remains of 23 people in the basement of his home in Paris ...
(1897–1946) *
Émile Buisson Émile "Mimile" Buisson (19 August 1902 – 28 February 1956) was a French gangster, and French public enemy No. 1 for 1950. A member of the French '' Gang des Tractions Avant'', Buisson was responsible for over thirty murders and a hundred robbe ...
(1902–1956) *
Claude Buffet Claude Buffet (19 May 1933 – 28 November 1972) was a French serial killer who was executed along with his accomplice, Roger Bontems (1936–1972), on 28 November 1972 by guillotine at La Santé Prison and buried at Ivry Cemetery. Both men ha ...
(1936–1972) They were all buried in unmarked graves. At the end of the 1990s all the remains were removed on government orders« Tueur en série : le mystère de l'effrayant docteur Petiot »
''
Atlantico ''Atlantico'' is a French news website. Founded on 28 February 2011 amid much media attention, it quickly attracted notice for scoops related to scandals involving the Socialist politician and International Monetary Fund head, Dominique Strau ...
'', 27 July 2014
and either placed in an ossuary or returned to their families and reburied elsewhere. Today only the paving stones marking the plot's boundaries survive.


Other notable burials

*
Arthur Adamov Arthur Adamov (23 August 1908 – 15 March 1970) was a playwright, one of the foremost exponents of the Theatre of the Absurd. Early life Adamov (originally Adamian) was born in Kislovodsk in the Terek Oblast of the Russian Empire The ...
(1908–1970), writer and playwright (44th division) *
Louis Caput Louis Caput (23 January 1921 - 1 January 1985) was a French professional racing cyclist and then team manager. He was born in Saint-Maur-des-Fosses, and won Paris–Tours in 1948, and two stages of the Tour de France. He was national champion in ...
(1921–1985), cyclist (44th division) *
André Chastel André Chastel (15 November 1912, Paris – 18 July 1990, Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a French art historian, author of an important work on the Italian Renaissance. He was a professor at the Collège de France, where he held the chair of art and civil ...
(1912–1990), art historian, professor at the Collège de France (9th division) *
Marius Constant Marius Constant (7 February 192515 May 2004) was a Romanian-born French composer and conductor. Although known in the classical world primarily for his ballet scores, his most widely known music was the iconic guitar theme for ''The Twilight Zon ...
(1925–2004), composer (24th division) *
René Dagron René Prudent Patrice Dagron (17 March 1817 – 13 June 1900) was a French photographer and inventor. He was born in Aillières-Beauvoir, Sarthe, France.
(1819–1900), photographic pioneer (10th division) *
Pierre Daix Pierre Georges Daix (24 May 1922 – 2 November 2014) was a French journalist, writer and art historian. He was a friend and biographer of Pablo Picasso. As a young man, Daix was an ardent Stalinist. He joined the French Communist Party at the ag ...
(1922–2014), resistance fighter and journalist (44th division) * Louis Delapchier (1878–1959), sculptor and illustrator (13th division) *
Nicolas Eekman Nicolas Mathieu Eekman (9 August 1889 – 13 November 1973), known as Nico Eekman, Nic Eekman and Ekma, was a Flemish figurative painter. He illustrated many books, notably ''The Destinies'' by Alfred de Vigny (1933), '' Beer‐Drinker's Tale ...
(1889–1973), Dutch painter (21st division) *
Fernand Faniard Fernand Smeets, better known under the name Fernand Faniard, 9 December 1894 in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode – 3 August 1955 in Paris) was a tenor of the Paris Opera, born in Brussels and naturalized French in 1949. He was the son of "cafeteria owner ...
(1894–1955), lyric artist (32nd division) *
Yves Giraud-Cabantous Yves Aristide Marius Giraud-Cabantous (; 8 October 1904 – 30 March 1973) was a racing driver from France. He drove in Formula One from to , participating in 13 World Championship Grands Prix, plus numerous non-Championship Formula One and Form ...
(1904–1973), driver (21st division) * Natalia Gontcharova (1881–1962), Russian painter, wife of Michel Larionov (7th division) * Michel Larionov (1881–1964), Russian painter, husband of Natalia Gontcharova (7th division) *
Éliphas Lévi Éliphas Lévi Zahed, born Alphonse Louis Constant (8 February 1810 – 31 May 1875), was a French esotericist, poet, and writer. Initially pursuing an ecclesiastical career in the Catholic Church, he abandoned the priesthood in his mid-twenti ...
(1810–1875 ; later disinterred and thrown in a common grave in 1881), ecclesiastic and occultist *
Lazare Ponticelli Lazare Ponticelli (born Lazzaro Ponticelli; 24 December 1897, later mistranscribed as 7 December – 12 March 2008), Knight of Vittorio Veneto, was at 110, the last surviving officially recognized veteran of the First World War from France an ...
(1897–2008), last surviving World War One
poilu Poilu (; ) is an informal term for a late 18th century–early 20th century French infantryman, meaning, literally, ''the hairy one''. It is still widely used as a term of endearment for the French infantry of World War I. The word carries the s ...
(41st division) *
Pierre Prins Pierre Prins (26 November 1838 – 21 January 1913) was a French painter, engraver and sculptor. Biography Pierre Prins was born on 26 November 1838, at the 7th arrondissement of Paris. He is the eldest son of his family. His family is a ma ...
(1838–1913), painter (29th division) *
Eugène Rubens-Alcais Eugène Rubens-Alcais (7 May 1884 – 8 March 1963) was a French deaf activist in the field of sports. He is known for introducing the Deaflympics in 1924 for deaf sportspeople. He was determined to establish international competitions for the ...
(1884–1963), French deaf activist in sport (5th division) *
Louis Seigner Louis Seigner (23 June 1903 – 20 January 1991) was a French actor.He was born in Saint-Chef, Isère, France, the son of Louise (Monin) and Joseph Seigner, and died in Paris. He was the father of actress Françoise Seigner, with Marie Cazeaux, a ...
(1903–1991), actor (7th division) * Roger Stéphane (1919–1994), writer and journalist (7th division)


References


External links

* {{Coord, 48, 48, 45, N, 02, 22, 03, E, display=title Cemeteries in Val-de-Marne Cemeteries established in the 1860s