Site of the Holy Innocents' Cemetery

Paris · Frankreich · Cemetery

The earth of the city's largest cemetery was said to devour a body in nine days — and Death danced with pope, emperor and king on its wall.

Where the fountain stands today lay the Cimetière des Innocents, the largest cemetery in Paris for almost a thousand years. The pressure was such that the ground was never allowed to rest, and Parisians believed they knew why it still sufficed: the earth was said to eat a body in nine days, flesh and all. On the southern wall of the cloister the city's Danse Macabre was painted in 1424 — Death seizing the pope, the emperor, the cardinal and the king in turn and pulling them into the dance — while beneath the arcades skulls and thighbones were stacked in open charnel houses that people strolled past for pleasure. The wall was demolished in 1669, the cemetery emptied in the 1780s and the bones carried down into the quarries. The place, the fountain and the legend of the children's voices remain.

FAQ

Wo befindet sich Site of the Holy Innocents' Cemetery?

Site of the Holy Innocents' Cemetery liegt in Paris, Frankreich.