Created from the gardens of several country houses and landscaped by Sixte Rey, Saint-Pierre Cemetery was consecrated on 25 September 1855, with the first burials taking place in January 1856.
The official opening of Saint-Pierre Cemetery took place on 30 December 1863, presided over by Prefect Maupas and the Mayor of Marseille, François-Xavier Balthazar Rouvière.
Previously, apart from small parish, convent or hospital cemeteries, the city had buried its dead in the large Saint-Charles Cemetery, which very quickly became full and proved to be too close to the city centre.
It was therefore decided to build a new, larger cemetery further out on the outskirts: the Saint-Pierre Cemetery. This place of remembrance is one of the city’s richest in terms of architecture and heritage, and one of the largest cemeteries in France, covering 63 hectares.
Some famous deceased…
It is home to numerous remarkable graves, monumental tombs, statues, sculpted decorations, caryatids, angels, mourners and curiosities of all kinds.
Among the monuments are the Lains family tomb, by far the most famous in the cemetery. Created by the sculptor Buselli, it depicts the deceased on her deathbed, embraced by her husband, alongside a statue by the sculptor Henri Reybaud representing her soul being welcomed into paradise. Visitors can also discover a wealth of works by sculptors such as André Allar, Auguste Carli, Louis Bottinelly and Antoine Sartorio, as well as architects such as Pascal-Xavier Coste.
A number of famous figures are buried here, including the painters Adolphe Monticelli and Alphonse Moutte, the poet Émile Sicard, the poet and actor Antonin Artaud, the poet and writer Edmond Rostand, the composer and singer Vincent Scotto and his son-in-law Allibert… as well as Fernandel’s parents and Édouard Balladur’s brother.
Not to mention, in particular, Gaston Deferre and Jean Bouin… and many other famous figures.
Marcel Pagnol is buried in the small cemetery of La Treille, an oasis of greenery in the heart of the city.
The cemetery is also home to the ‘Cathedral of Silence’, an eight-storey concrete building capable of accommodating the remains of nearly 190,000 people, and a crematorium designed by the architect Léonce Muller, inspired by mosques, which has recently been extended, in a more contemporary architectural style, in response to the rise in the number of cremations, and an Art Deco-style crypt designed by the architect Gaston Castel, dedicated to the soldiers from Marseille who died in action during the 1914–1918 war.
Saint-Pierre Cemetery
380 Rue Saint-Pierre,
13005 Marseille
Tel.: 04 91 14 67 00
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
