Protestant Cemetery, Bordeaux

Cimetière protestant de Bordeaux
Cimetière protestant de Bordeaux
	The cemetery entrance
Details
Established	1827
Location	Bordeaux
Country	France
Coordinates	44°50′28″N 0°35′39″W / 44.8410°N 0.5942°W
Type	Protestant cemetery
Owned by	United Protestant Church of France
Size	1,5 ha
No. of graves	1,300
Website	Official website

The Protestant cemetery of Bordeaux (French: Le cimetière protestant de Bordeaux) is a historic, church-owned and operated Protestant cemetery located in the city of Bordeaux, in France. The cemetery was inaugurated in 1826 in the district of Caudéran. And the first burial was recorded in March 1827. Enlarged in 1867, a small funerary chapel was built in 1910 on the cemetery ground.^[1]

History and description

Before the Edict of Nantes granted Protestants some religious tolerance and rights to worship freely, Protestants had to bury their dead clandestinely on private property, farm land or cellars. The current cemetery on rue Judaïque covers an area of 1.5 hectares, containing approximately 1,300 plots. A monumental gate was designed by the architect Armand Corcelles who also built the Chartrons Reformed Church on rue Notre-Dame in Bordeaux. The burial ground reflects the diverse and multicultural character of Bordeaux with tombs belonging to the deceased Reformed Calvinists, Lutherans, Anglicans of various nationalities. Although most of the grave sites are plain and austere, owing to the Calvinist doctrine and teachings, there are some ornate monuments, family mausoleums and burial chapels in neo-Gothic and Victorian architectural styles which belong to prominent German-Lutheran and British-Anglican families such as Barton, Johnston, Stuttenberg families.^[2]

Notable burials

List is sorted in order of the year of death.

Pierre-Barthélémy Portal d'Albarèdes Baron Portal (1765–1845), French politician
Ludovic Trarieux (1840–1904), French Republican statesman, lawyer, prominent Dreyfusard, and pioneer of international human rights
Jean de La Ville de Mirmont (1886–1914), French war poet
Chocolat (clown) Rafael Padilla (1868–1917), Afro-Cuban clown, one of the earliest successful black entertainers in modern France
Hortense Schneider (1833–1920), French soprano, one of the greatest operetta stars of the 19th century
Camille Jullian (1859–1933), French historian, philologist, archaeologist and historian of literature
Manon Cormier (1896–1945), French lawyer and feminist writer
Willem van Hasselt (1882–1963), Dutch painter
Henri Salmide (1919–2010), named Heinz Stahlschmidt at birth, German naval officer