Conception and ecological management of cemeteries

There are over 40,000* cemeteries (civil, military or private) in France, covering just over 20,000** hectares - twice the size of Paris. They are found all over the country, and vary in size from a few square meters to several hundred hectares, although most are quite small.

Cemeteries as we know them come in a wide variety of designs and landscapes. From natural cemeteries, through landscaped cemeteries, to those that are entirely mineralized, the presence of vegetation varies greatly. By their very nature, cemeteries are quiet places where human activity is limited. They are planted with flowers by local authorities and private individuals alike, and generally include grassy areas and trees to accompany the burial spaces. However, the mineral atmosphere is most often observed, the result of a history directly linked to religious worship, particularly Catholic. In France, until the end of the 18th century, cemeteries were set up next to churches, since the faithful were forbidden to bury inside religious buildings in the Middle Ages. They were gradually abandoned to make way for new cemeteries at the gates of towns and villages.

The onset of the great plague and cholera epidemics contributed significantly to this displacement. From the 19th century onwards, most cemeteries were located outside the city center, disconnected from the historic core and the urban fabric. These changes were also accompanied by a shift in the institutions that managed them. The Church gradually handed over maintenance to the municipal administration, until the 1905 law on the separation of Church and State definitively removed it from management. The transition to communal management led to a standardization of cemetery design, due in part to the standardization of funeral services.

In Western countries, as the expression of Catholic worship has been characterized by stone tombs since the 20th century, the place of nature in these cemeteries has gradually been discouraged in favor of alignments of marble stones and industrially manufactured concrete vaults, separated by shale or gravel pathways that are often chemically weeded. Spontaneous flora then becomes an intruder in this mineral landscape, and is often poorly perceived by users. Cemeteries thus become "constrained spaces"...