Madeleine Cemetery (in French known as ''Cimetière de la Madeleine'') is a former cemetery in the
8th arrondissement of Paris
The 8th arrondissement of Paris (''VIIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, the arrondissement is colloquially referred to as ''le huitième'' ().
The ar ...
and was one of the four cemeteries (the others being
Errancis Cemetery,
Picpus Cemetery and the
Cemetery of Saint Margaret) used to dispose of the corpses of
guillotine
A guillotine ( ) is an apparatus designed for effectively carrying out executions by Decapitation, beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secur ...
victims during the
French Revolution. The cemetery was named after
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cr ...
, known in French as Sainte-Madeleine.
History
In 1720, the parish of
Sainte-Madeleine de la Ville-l’Évêque bought a piece of land of approximately 45x19m destined to become the third cemetery of the parish. It became known as the Madeleine Cemetery.
The cemetery was closed on 25 March 1794, reputedly because it was full, but maybe for sanitary reasons, as it was located in an affluent part of Paris.
Major interments were the 133 victims of the firework celebration of the marriage of the Dauphin (the future
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...
) to
Marie Antoinette of Habsburg-Lorraine on 30 May 1770 and those of the
Swiss Guards who were massacred in the
Tuileries,
10 August 1792.
The day after the execution of the "
Hébertists" the cemetery was closed and became private land. The beheaded corpses (victims of the guillotine) were then taken to what was to become the
Errancis Cemetery (it remained open for three years but is now also gone).
The land was sold to a stonemason. On 3 June 1802, the land in which the bodies lay, was bought by Pierre-Louis Olivier Desclozeaux, a royalist magistrate, who had lived adjacent to the cemetery (now ''Square Louis XVI'') since 1789. Desclozeaux had taken note of the sites where the King and Queen were buried and reputedly surrounded them with a
hedge, two
weeping willows, and
cypress trees.
On 11 January 1815, Desclozeaux sold his house and the old cemetery to Louis XVIII. One of the first decisions of
Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 y ...
, when he acceded to the throne of France at the time of the
Bourbon Restoration, was to move the remains of his brother and sister-in-law, King
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...
and Queen
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette (; ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last List of French royal consorts, queen of France before the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. She was the ...
, to the
Basilica of St Denis
The Basilica of Saint-Denis (, now formally known as the ) is a large former medieval abbey church and present cathedral in the commune of Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris. The building is of singular importance historically and archite ...
, the necropolis of the Kings of France. They were exhumed on 18 and 19 January 1815, and moved to Saint-Denis Basilica on 20 January. Marie Antoinette's remains were identified by a garter and a jaw, which an eyewitness identified as being the queen's, based on having seen her smile over thirty years before. Louis XVIII also searched for the remains of his sister
Élisabeth in the
Errancis Cemetery, but to no avail.
In 1844, the cemetery was cleared and the skeletal remains were transferred to the ''l'Ossuaire de l'Ouest'' (West Ossuary). When the ossuary was closed, the contents were transferred to the
Paris catacombs, which was also the resting place of remains removed from the
Errancis Cemetery.
During the French Revolution
Those killed in the
September Massacres of 1792 are alleged to be buried here:
*
Princess Marie Louise of Savoy
The decapitated corpses of the
guillotine
A guillotine ( ) is an apparatus designed for effectively carrying out executions by Decapitation, beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secur ...
victims were thrown in specially dug trenches and covered in
quicklime to speed up the decomposition process. There were no markers.
Among those reputed to have been buried here:
[Beyern, B., Guide des tombes d'hommes célèbres, Le Cherche Midi, 2008, 377p, ]
*
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...
(21 January 1793); he and Marie Antoinette were reputedly the only victims buried in a coffin.
*
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette (; ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last List of French royal consorts, queen of France before the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. She was the ...
(16 October 1793)
*
Charlotte Corday
Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont (27 July 1768 – 17 July 1793), known simply as Charlotte Corday (), was a figure of the French Revolution who assassinated revolutionary and Jacobins, Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat on 13 July 1793. Cor ...
(18 July 1793)
*22
Girondists (31 October 1793); among them
Jacques Pierre Brissot and
Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud.
*
Olympe de Gouges ( 3 November 1793)
*
Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (Louis Philippe Joseph; 13 April 17476 November 1793), was a French Prince of the Blood who supported the French Revolution.
Louis Philippe II was born at the to Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, Louis Phi ...
(6 November 1793); also known as Phillipe Égalité.
*
Madame Roland (8 November 1793)
*
Madame du Barry (8 December 1793)
*
Jacques Hébert (24 March 1794) and his supporters.
It is unclear how many corpses were buried: the estimates vary from hundreds up to three thousand.
Location
The cemetery was located on the intersection of ''rue d’Anjou'' and the ''Grand Égout'' (now ''
Boulevard Haussmann'') in Paris. It was part of the land on which the ''
Chapelle expiatoire'', built in the memory of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, now stands.
References
Further reading
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{{Authority control
Cemeteries in Paris
Buildings and structures in the 8th arrondissement of Paris
Roman Catholic cemeteries in France
Cemeteries established in the 18th century