LES CIMETIÈRES DE LA VILLE

Located along Popey Road since 1850, the civil cemetery and its military neighbour reflect the history of the town. The tombs they preserve keep the memory of the past of the inhabitants. Some of them, because of their high artistic value, are protected as Historic Monuments. In Caturiges, as everywhere in the Roman Empire, the dead were buried outside the town, along the roads. In the Middle Ages, it is near the only parish church of the town - Notre-Dame - that the "great cemetery" was created. Only the religious communities and the ducal family are not buried there. A chapel for the dead was founded in 1649 in order to collect bones, free up space and prevent epidemics. However, due to lack of space and for reasons of hygiene, the cemetery was disused in 1813 and moved to a new location more than a year later the East at the place called "Les Chènevières". In the old enclosure only remains the chapel of the Oudinot family, built in 1810. But from 1849, the work related to the arrival of the railway in the city forced the councillors to consider a new move of the cemetery. In 1850, the present Sainte-Marguerite cemetery was created, the entrance gate of which is decorated with funerary symbols (hourglasses). In 1857, the widow of Marshal Oudinot had the family vault moved to the new cemetery. The tombs display a wide range of 19th and 20th century funerary sculpture. From the neo-Gothic chapel decorated with stained glass windows to the Romantic monument where the use of allegory highlights the values of the deceased, these tombs evoke a flourishing period in the history of the Barisian city. Signed Caveneget or Auguste François, they are the occasion for commissions to artists recognized in the department. From the first months of 1915, the proximity of the Eastern front and the presence of six military hospitals in the city require the creation of a specific military cemetery. This is adjacent to the civil cemetery and will house up to five thousand soldiers. The white crosses decorated with a metal plaque identifying the deceased are organized around a commemorative monument inaugurated in 1927 by Raymond Poincaré, then President of the Council. Some graves with different shapes evoke soldiers belonging to other religions. There is also a Jewish cemetery in Bar-le-Duc, created in 1832 not far from the present Rue de Maestricht.