During the Grande Terreur (14 June to 27 July 1794) 1306 people of different social origins and ages were executed – often for no or very little reason – in what is now the Place de la Nation. The massacre ended with the fall of Robespierre. Their bodies were buried in common pits.
Some families of the dead succeeded clandestinely in buying up the land in which and around which the bodies were buried, and initially a chapel was built there. This is one of only two private cemeteries in Paris, but the only openly accessible one: Cimetière de Picpus, 35 rue de Picpus, Paris. When we visited in October 2015, the entrance fee was a mere two euros each.
Gémissant, mais baigné d’harmonie et de flamme,
Le vôtre a des parfums pour tout votre avenir.
Beaux enfants ! Que ce nom mélodieux rassemble
Doux héritiers du cygne, ah, ne nous quittez pas :
Un écho pleure encore où vous parlez ensemble,
Mais une gloire chante où vous posez vos pas.'
Some families of the dead succeeded clandestinely in buying up the land in which and around which the bodies were buried, and initially a chapel was built there. This is one of only two private cemeteries in Paris, but the only openly accessible one: Cimetière de Picpus, 35 rue de Picpus, Paris. When we visited in October 2015, the entrance fee was a mere two euros each.
'ANDRÉ DE CHÉNIER
FILS DE LA GRÉCE [SIC] ET DE LA FRANCE
1762 – 1794
SERVIT LES MUSES
AIMA LA SAGESSE
MOURUT POUR LA VÉRITÉ'
André Chénier was dead at the age of thirty-one. Born in Galatia of a Greek mother and French businessman father and brought up by relatives in Carcassonne, his works were published from 1819, making him a major figure of Hellenism in France. He is the elder brother of the poet, dramatist and politician Marie-Joseph Blaise de Chénier (1762–1811).
'JEAN ANTOINE
ROUCHER
1745 – 1794
POÈTE
AUTEUR DES "MOIS"
GUILLOTINÉ LE
7 THERMIDOR AN II'
Jean-Antoine Roucher was a French poet born in Montpellier. The poet Marceline Desbordes-Valmore wrote 'Aux petits-enfants du poète Roucher' for his descendants:
'Il est des noms aimés qui s’attachant à l’âme
Vivent comme des fleurs au fond du souvenir :Gémissant, mais baigné d’harmonie et de flamme,
Le vôtre a des parfums pour tout votre avenir.
Beaux enfants ! Que ce nom mélodieux rassemble
Doux héritiers du cygne, ah, ne nous quittez pas :
Un écho pleure encore où vous parlez ensemble,
Mais une gloire chante où vous posez vos pas.'
Charles de Montalembert (1810–70) was a journalist, historian and politician. He defended the freedom of the press and supported oppressed minorities.
'LOUIS LÉON THÉODORE GOSSELIN
G. LENOTRE
DE L'ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE
1855 – 1935'
Lenotre was a historian and dramatist who specialised in studying and writing about the French Revolution. He published a history of the cemetery, Le Jardin de Picpus, in 1928.
'QUI CREDIT
IN ME
ETIAM SI MORTUUS
VIVET'
('Who believes in me, even if dead, will live.')
The chapel.
One of the two walls bearing the list of the dead.
A painting of Père Damien, known for his work with lepers in the Pacific.
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