Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery
The Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery (French Cimetière du Bois-de-Vaux) is the principal burial ground of Lausanne in Switzerland.
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| Details | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1922 |
| Location | Route de Chavannes, Lausanne, Canton of Vaud |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Size | 20 acres (8.1 ha) |
| Website | Official website |
Laid out by the architect Alphonse Laverrière between 1922 and 1951,[1] the cemetery lies to the south of the town and has been designated as a cultural property of national importance (bien culturel suisse d'importance nationale).
Description
There is a long central avenue lined with two rows of lime trees, banks stocked with flowering plants, ponds with fish and water lilies, many benches, and forty kilometres of hedges. Together with thousands of trees they provide homes for many different birds, while the other wildlife living in the hedges and undeveloped parts of the cemetery includes badgers, foxes, squirrels and hedgehogs. The cemetery has enough room for 26,000 plots.[2]
When the city of Lausanne heard in 1929 that the American bishop Charles Brent had died in Lausanne and wished to be buried there, they offered a plot for his remains in the section of the Bois-de-Vaux cemetery reserved for distinguished foreigners.[3]
Notable graves
- Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879), area 18, plot 101
- Charles Brent (1862–1929)[4]
- Pierre de Coubertin (1863–1937), area 9, plots 153-154[5]
- Alphonse Laverrière (1872-1954), area 1
- Eugenia Livanos-Niarchos (1927–1970)[6]
- Coco Chanel (1883–1971), area 9, plot 130[7]
- Tina Onassis Niarchos (1929–1974)[6]
- Paul Robert (1910–1980), area 9, plot 127
- Gloria Guinness (1913–1980)
- Loel Guinness (1906–1988)
- Pierre Dudan (1916–1984)
- Stavros Niarchos (1909–1996)
Royal graves
Some members of the exiled Yugoslav royal family were initially buried here, but their remains were later moved to the mausoleum at Oplenac, Serbia, when allowed by the government in Belgrade:
- Prince Nicholas of Yugoslavia (1928–1954)[8]
- Prince Paul of Yugoslavia (1893–1976), former Regent of Yugoslavia, father of Prince Nicholas[8]
- Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark (1903–1997), mother of Prince Nicholas[8]
Also, the Queen Mother of Romania, a first cousin and friend of Princess Olga, was buried in the cemetery in 1982, but in 2019 her remains were due to be moved to the Curtea de Argeș Cathedral in Romania:[9]
- Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark (1896–1982)[10]
Gallery
Grave of Gabrielle «Coco» Chanel
Grave of Pierre de Coubertin
Firefighters' monument
Water feature
Arrangement of graves
There are many trees
Notes
- Le cimetière du Bois-de-Vaux (in French) at lausanne.ch, accessed 3 March 2019
- Bois-de-Vaux cemetery at lausanne-tourisme.ch/en, accessed 3 March 2019
- Alexander Clinton Zabriskie Bishop Brent, crusader for Christian unity (1948), p. 196.
- Ian Tyrrell, Reforming the World: The Creation of America's Moral Empire (2010), p. 245
- David Arscott, The Olympics, A Very Peculiar History (2011), p. 40
- William Wright, Michael Wright, All the Pain Money Can Buy: The Life of Christina Onassis William Wright, (2000), p. 199
- Swiss News (1998), p. 43: "Chanel's grave in the Bois de Vaux Cemetery, Lausanne, is in plot No. 130 0/9."
- Ricardo Mateos Sainz de Medrano, La Familia de la Reina Sofía : La Dinastía griega, la Casa de Hannover y los reales primos de Europa, Madrid, La Esfera de los Libros (2004, ISBN 978-8-4973-4195-0), p. 262
- Remains of Helen, Queen Mother of Romania to be moved to the new cathedral at Curtea de Argeş at historyofroyalwomen.com, accessed 12 March 2018
- Romania page at royaltombs.dk, accessed 12 March 2019
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