Paris Renaissant, le cimetières des Innocents en anglais
The Cemetery of the Innocents
The cemetery dates back from the end of the 12th century and was replaced in 1786 by the market. Nowadays, you can see the fountain of the Innocents, last testimony of the burial ground, in the middle of Joachim Dubellay square.
A Gallo-roman burial ground occupied the place. It was laid along the former Cardo, one of the 2 main ways of the roman city, now Saint-Denis’s street. At this time, dead were buried outside the city, along the ways.
In 1793, the discovery of Merovegian sarcophagus let us think that they continue to use it with the erection of a chapel dedicated to Saint-Michael. King Louis the Fat enlarged the Chapel and his son King Louis the Young dedicated it to the Saints Innocents. We do not know exactly why, perhaps because of the Massacre of the Innocents or due to the assassination of a young Jewish in Pontoise, a city to the North of Paris, in 1171 and buried there.
The cemetery is opened and the legend goes that pigs used to ransack the tombs.
Therefore, 1186 King Philip August decided to enclose the cemetery into the city for salubrious reasons. But, surrounded by tiny medieval streets, the cemetery could not grow up anymore.
Then, at the beginning of the 14th century, the ground is saturated with corps. To have more space, the bones are taken from the ground to be stuck up under the roof of the wall surrounding the cemetery. First separated, they are gathered together to become a charnel house. (Only the superficial layers are removed, it was impossible to reach the others).
The big plague is devastating the kingdom and we can see till 500 funeral services per day. Located closed to the main market of the city, the area is still insalubrious whereas people continue to use it as a rubbish dump, place of rendez-vous or for trading. The earth is known as being magic, to cure disease, but coming over the centuries, it is a real problem for health and salubrious : germs contaminate the food of the merchants and empoisoned the water causing sickness and epidemics.
In 1780,the king Louis the 16th decided to close the cemeteries of the city. The charnel house is moved to the former quarry used for the settlement of the city, located in the South of the city. The place is baptised the Catacombs like the Antics ones. They are open to the public from the beginning of the 19th century. Two millions of skeletons have been moved at night light up with torches through the dark tiny streets of the city. Brrrrr!!!
The Dance of Death.
The charnel house was adorned with paintings called the Dance of Death, dating from 1424. It was destroyed in 1786, when they destroyed the place.
It was composed by 30 scenes representing a dead and a living in different situations. The morale was that everybody is mortal and equal facing to death, everybody is judged for what they did.
The fountain of the Innocents
The fountain you can see was erected in 1549, to celebrate the entrance in Paris of the king Henry 2nd. Therefore, it was built at the royal door of Paris , Saint-Denis’s street, leant to the street’s wall.
In 1786, the fountain is saved from the destruction and placed to the middle of the square. The fourth façade of the monument is added. The sculptures date from the 16th century, excepted on the Southern side, dated from the 19th Century.