New Guillotière Cemetery
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Row number 3 in the new cemetery
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| Details | |
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| Established |
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| Location | Lyon |
| Country | France |
| Coordinates | 45°44′19″N 4°51′25″E / 45.7385°N 4.8569°E (New cemetery)Coordinates: 45°44′19″N 4°51′25″E / 45.7385°N 4.8569°E (New cemetery) |
| Size | 18 hectares (44 acres) for the new cemetery |
| No. of graves | 40,000 |
| Website | |
| Find a Grave | Guillotière Cemetery |
Guillotière Cemetery is the name of two adjacent but associated cemeteries in Lyon, France. The two cemeteries are distinguished according to when they were built: the new cemetery (Cimetière de La Guillotière nouveau) was built in 1854 and the old cemetery (Cimetière de La Guillotière ancien) in 1822. They are situated in the La Guillotière neighborhood of the city, in the 7th et 8th arrondissements, just south of Parc Sergent Blandan. They were built to address the shortage of burial spaces in the city. The old cemetery is just north of the new cemetery, and the two are separated by Avenue Berthelot and the railroad tracks connecting Perrache and Part-Dieu railway stations. The new cemetery is the largest in Lyon at 18 hectares (44 acres).
Before the end of the 17th century only small church cemeteries existed in Lyon. In 1695 a cemetery named "Cimitière de la Madeleine" was built to accommodate the dead from Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon. In 1807 Cimetière de Loyasse was built on Fourvière hill. These new cemeteries still did not provide enough space for the rapidly growing city, and Guillotière Cemetery was meant to alleviate the growing need for more burial spaces.
The development of Guillotière Cemetery had first been proposed on 1 March 1795 to be built at "Clos Macors", in the commune of La Guillotière, but the cemetery didn't open until 1822. When La Guillotière amalgamated with Lyon in 1852, it became the main cemetery in the city of Lyon. Despite the additional land, by 1854 the space again proved to be insufficient so the new cemetery was constructed to provide additional space for burials.
The cemetery sustained significant damage when it was mistakenly bombed by the American military during the Second World War on 26 May 1944. There is still visible damage on some of the graves at the south end of the new cemetery near rue Pierre Delore.
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Wikipedia