Saints-Pères Cemetery

Saints-Pères Cemetery (cimetière des Saints-Pères) is a historic cemetery in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, sited at what is now 30 rue des Saints-Pères.

Site of the cemetery

After being forced to give up the Saint-Germain Cemetery in 1604, the Protestants of Paris bought a rectangular garden on the moulin du Pré-aux-Clercs mound on rue des Saints-Pères from Joachim Meurier, a master goldsmith from Île de la Cité. It was roughly 13 toise (24 m) by 23 toise (42 m). The first burials were on 21 March 1604 and the cemetery was used up until the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, after which it was renamed Charité Cemetery (cimetière de la Charité) and used by the Hôpital de la Charité. It was enclosed by a 3m high wall and received at least one body a day. Like all the inner-city cemeteries, it was closed in 1785 by order of the inspector general of quarries Charles-Axel Guillaumot - the contents of its tombs and charnel houses and its burials at a depth of at least 100m were transferred to the new Catacombs of Paris, a set of re-used quarries on what is now Rue de la Tombe-Issoire.