It is nicknamed "
the cemetery of fools
".
In the town of Évreux (Eure), 460 patients, doctors and nurses rest in the old cemetery of the Navarre psychiatric hospital.
Abandoned since 1974, the land will be wiped off the map to make way for a four-lane.
But associations and former hospital employees oppose the engulfing of the graves, in the name of human dignity, reports France Info.
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In this cemetery created in 1866 next to the psychiatric hospital, the wooden crosses of the graves are still visible in the middle of the vegetation.
Property of the State for ten years, the site is no longer maintained.
But this cemetery is living its last moments, because it is located on the route of a bypass in the city.
Work has already started a few meters from the graves.
Concern for the future of the graves
The National Commission for the Protection of Funeral Heritage, created by the NGO Urgences Patrimoine, deplores that the burial of the cemetery leads to the disappearance of the graves. Its members demand that the bodies be removed before the works and placed in a decent place, where their names as well as their dates of birth and death will be mentioned. "
It hurts me to the extent that it is a complete disrespect compared to people who are here, some of whom I knew at the beginning of my career
"
,
explains Alain Desgrez France Info, a former employee of the hospital.
In order to keep track of the deceased, a petition has been posted by Manon Maurin, who works in the funeral sector.
More than 900 people have signed it.
Concerned about the integrity of the graves and their traceability, she contacted the Eure prefecture, which assured her that funeral rights would be respected.
Marion Maurin specifies in her petition that this cemetery has heritage and historical value: "
it is a privileged witness to the funeral treatment of people often ostracized in society but also from a health point of view in the treatment of the deaths of Cholera in the 19th century. century."