Informations directionnelles

Revenir sur la place de l’église. Continuer tout droit, rue des Bruyères. Laisser le pédiluve sur votre droite et continuer toujours tout droit sur environ 450 mètres. Prendre à gauche, puis de nouveau à gauche sous le tunnel végétal. Continuer pendant environ 1 km. Emprunter le chemin à gauche. Continuer tout droit. Des deux chemins, emprunter le chemin herbeux. Prendre à droite la rue du Ruisseau, pour atteindre la maison où Joseph Kessel vécu pendant 20 ans.

THE CEMETERY
A place of memory

 

Relocated tombs...

Traditionally, burials took place in the church or the consecrated ground surrounding it. The cemetery was at the heart of village life. From 1776, burials in churches were banned. Later, due to overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, new theories on hygiene and the circulation of air, and changing cultural attitudes to the dead, a Royal Decree was delivered on December 6, 1843 obliging towns to move tombs outside of city walls. In Gadancourt, the move had begun prior to the Royal Decree. On the 1831 land registry map, the cemetery was already located on its current site, at the edge of the village, marked as the “Cimetière neuf” (the new cemetery). The cross from the old cemetery remained on the site of the church. Listed as a historical monument since 1942, it is supposed to date from the 15th century.

 

 

...and a rich funerary heritage

The degree of June 12, 1804, regulated burials, leading to the creation of individual tombs and family tombs, and funerary chapels. Dating from the 19th century, the Gadancourt and Boury family chapel is built against the south-east wall of the cemetery. The vault of the chapel is arched and built in cut stone. The segmental arched entry is topped with a triangular pediment.
Owners of the Gadancourt estate, this family held an important position in the village in the 19thcentury.