Cimetière des Gonards

The Cimetière des Gonards is the largest cemetery in Versailles on the outskirts of Paris. It began operations in 1879. The cemetery covers an area of 130,000 square metres (32 acres) and contains more than 12,000 graves.

Cimetière des Gonards
Details
Established1879
Location
Versailles
CountryFrance
Size130,000 square metres (32 acres)
No. of graves12,000

Description

This is a rurally landscaped cemetery, the upper part of which is laid out with walks and planted with trees. The Devos-Logie and Mirand-Devos Chapels were designed by the architect Hector Guimard in 1894.

There is a section for military graves, including 534 German military graves from the two World Wars, marked by a monument and stelae of pink granite, and a war graves section containing the graves of 181 Commonwealth service personnel of both World Wars.[1] In the highest part is a monument to those French service personnel who are buried in the graveyards of North Africa.

The cemetery also contains a Jewish area (sections "L sud" and "L ouest"), and many English and American Protestant burials.

The notorious executed murderers Henri Désiré Landru and Eugène Weidmann are buried here, in unmarked graves.[2]

Notable burials
  • Monument to the French of North Africa
  • German military graves
  • Jewish gravestone

References
  1. CWGC Cemetery Report.
  2. Le cimetière des Gonards

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.