St. Innocents' Church and Cemetery, Bernier

We have already encountered the works of Claude-Louis Bernier three times on this page, namely the three small pictures of monuments.

Around 1786, shortly before the church was demolished, Bernier created the plan drawing to the left along with a small book called "Monuments du Cimetiere des SS^tsInnocents" containing drawings of about 20 monuments. Unlike the maps we have seen so far, this map is north-up oriented like modern maps.

The plan drawing was created right before the church was demolished. As you can see, the monuments were not quite located, where the old depictions might have lead us to believe they where. The pulpit (P), which both Grimer and Silvestre had placed almost adjacent to the ossuary was in fact much closer to the center of the yard, and the octagonal tower (T), which they had located close to the church, was in fact much farther away.

The letter C is Croix des Gastines, and A marks the spot where Bernier stood when he drew the picture below.

The image to the left shows the old ossuaries on the north-side (the south-wall with the Danse Macabre had been demolished back in 1669). The building to the left is the pulpit, and one can see that the windows at this point in time had been bricked up.

The cross in the middle is the Croix des Bureaux, and to the right there's a glimpse of a wall, which is either the church or the wall surrounding the church.

Bernier also drew the Chapelle de Villeroy, which was located along the west-wall, i.e. at opposite end of the churchyard. The perspective is faulty, one of the crosses seems to block the entrance door to the chapel, while Bernier's own plan drawing (above) shows that there was at least the space of two arcades between the cross and the door. .

The next and final chapter examines the works by Fedor Hoffbauer.

The previous chapter looked at contemporary representations.

St. Innocents' Cemetery, Bernier

Further information