Saint-Maclou Churchyard

Strange, hidden, and unsettling, the Saint-Maclou Churchyard is shrouded in mystery. It’s no surprise this eerie place is Rouen’s second most visited site, after the iconic Notre-Dame Cathedral. What looks like a small, charming square lined with timber-framed houses, actually holds a dark, morbid story. Back in the 14th century, France was in the grip of a terrible crisis. The country was ravaged by the Hundred Years’ War, famine, and a Black Death epidemic. The dead outnumbered the living, and church graveyards overflowed. The Saint-Maclou parish was no exception. To solve the problem, the city bought a plot of land and created a new cemetery, known as “aître” in the Middle Ages. But by the 1500s, they were back to square one. To make room for the newly deceased, they had no choice but to dig up older remains and store them elsewhere. Where, though? And so they built 3 wooden galleries, covered with rather haunting decorations, to serve as ossuaries. Around 1652, they added a fourth wing on the southern edge to house a parish school and the priests’ quarters. The Saint-Maclou Churchyard was used as a burial ground for over a century, with the last recorded burial taking place in 1782. By 1790, the cemetery was disused. In 1911, it housed a girls’ boarding school and, then, the city’s School of Fine Arts in 1940. This was supposed to be temporary, but the school stayed there for 74 whole years. The churchyard was restored from top to bottom over a two-year period, with the help of craftsmen from 15 different trades, and reopened to the public in 2020.  Today, this historic site is home to two art galleries and a café-restaurant, open 24 hours a day, serving delicious plates made of local produce. You can enjoy a drink or a meal on one of the terraces, all while admiring the intricately carved beams of this unique monument. And if you look closely, you might just spot the mummified black cat that’s bricked up in the wall. Some say it was placed there to ward off evil, while others claim it’s a Beaux-Arts student prank. Which one is it? Whatever the case, one thing’s for sure: this mummy, together with all the bodies still buried all over the Saint-Maclou Churchyard, is a haunting, yet integral part of Rouen’s history.