The Cimetière des Champeaux de Montmorency, at

Montmorency, Val-d'Oise Montmorency () is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Montmorency was the fief of the Montmorency family, one of the oldest and most distinguished families of the French nobility. It is no ...

Île-de-France , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 = +01:00 , timezone1_DST = CEST , utc_offset1_DST = +02:00 , blank_name_sec1 = Gross regional product , blank_info_sec1 = Ranked 1st , bla ...

, is a cemetery first established in the 17th-century. It has the particularity of being the largest

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

burial place in France, hence its appellation as the "Pantheon of the Polish Emigration". It is located 15 km north of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and adjacent to the

spa resort A destination spa or health resort is a resort centered on a spa, such as a mineral spa. Historically, many such spas were developed at the location of natural hot springs or mineral springs; in the era before modern biochemical knowledge and p ...

Enghien-les-Bains Enghien-les-Bains () is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the département of Val-d'Oise. Enghien-les-Bains is famous as a spa resort and a well-to-do suburb of Paris, developed in ...

. That it fell to Montmorency to become the main necropolis of the

Polish diaspora The Polish diaspora comprises Poles and people of Polish heritage or origin who live outside Poland. The Polish diaspora is also known in modern Polish as ''Polonia'', the name for Poland in Latin and many Romance languages. There are roughly 20,0 ...

in the country is due to two Polish political exiles, who happened to be staying at the nearby spa at the time of their death and were buried in the local cemetery. They were the statesman and poet,

Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz ( , ; 6 February 1758 – 21 May 1841) was a Polish poet, playwright and statesman. He was a leading advocate for the Constitution of 3 May 1791. Early life Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz was born 6 February 1758 in Skoki, near ...

, one time Polish envoy to the United Kingdom and

Karol Kniaziewicz Baron Karol Otto Kniaziewicz (4 May 1762 in Assiten, Courland (now Asīte, Latvia) – 9 May 1842 in Paris) was a Polish general and political activist. Karol attended the Knight School in Warsaw. He participated in the Polish-Russian war of ...

, politician and brigadier general in Napoleon's

Grande Armée ''La Grande Armée'' (; ) was the main military component of the French Imperial Army commanded by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte during the Napoleonic Wars. From 1804 to 1808, it won a series of military victories that allowed the French Empi ...

. Since their interments in the early part of the 19th-century, a succession of noted exiled Poles found their final resting place in the cemetery. There are over 276 Polish burials, among them the poets

Adam Mickiewicz Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (; 24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish Ro ...

, the national bard, and

Cyprian Kamil Norwid Cyprian Kamil Norwid, a.k.a. Cyprian Konstanty Norwid (; 24 September 1821 – 23 May 1883), was a nationally esteemed Polish poet, dramatist, painter, and sculptor. He was born in the Masovian village of Laskowo-Głuchy near Warsaw. One of hi ...

, statesman

Adam Jerzy Czartoryski Adam Jerzy Czartoryski (; lt, Аdomas Jurgis Čartoriskis; 14 January 177015 July 1861), in English known as Adam George Czartoryski, was a Polish nobleman, statesman, diplomat and author. The son of a wealthy prince, he began his political c ...

, and the diplomat and head of the Polish resistance in France during

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Aleksander Kawalkowski. The cemetery has become one of the national symbols of Polish resistance to all forms of oppression, and each Spring, it is the rallying place for Poles living in the Paris area, who go there to commemorate their historical leaders and artists.

History

Montmorency and the Grande Émigration

At the end of the 18th-century the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania ceased to be a sovereign state. It was partitioned in three stages between three neighbouring empires, the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

and

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

. While during Napoleon's passage to Russia a statelet attached to the

First French Empire The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, then the French Empire (; Latin: ) after 1809, also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Eu ...

, called the

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw ( pl, Księstwo Warszawskie, french: Duché de Varsovie, german: Herzogtum Warschau), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during ...

, was briefly in existence, the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

turned it in 1815 into

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...

. It was a notionally semi-autonomous province and a fraction of the previous autonomous state, such that it was a monarchy in personal union with the Russian empire and the tsar was known as "King of Poland". However, the tyranny of tsar Nicholas I incited the Poles to stage a planned

insurrection Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...

which began in November 1830, formed an interim Polish government under prince Czartoryski, and spread to all parts of the former Commonwealth under Russian rule well into the following year. It was brutally put down by Russia, resulting in thousands of deaths, imprisonment, confiscation of property and exile to

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

. Many of the dissidents who managed to evade those outcomes, escaped to Western Europe, including the Italian and German states, Switzerland and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, with a majority settling in France where they were dubbed the ''Grande Emigration'', with Czartoryski among them. While in the 19th-century resettled Poles conducted their political and intellectual lives in Paris, they favoured Enghien-les-Bains as a holiday destination and Delfina Potocka opened a second salon at the spa to entertain guests to Chopin's piano recitals and hear the works of poets such as

Juliusz Słowacki Juliusz Słowacki (; french: Jules Slowacki; 4 September 1809 – 3 April 1849) was a Polish Romantic poet. He is considered one of the "Three Bards" of Polish literature — a major figure in the Polish Romantic period, and the father of mode ...

and

Zygmunt Krasiński Napoleon Stanisław Adam Feliks Zygmunt Krasiński (; 19 February 1812 – 23 February 1859) was a Polish poet traditionally ranked after Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Słowacki as one of Poland's Three Bards – the Romantic poets who influenced ...

Wall of Remembrance

The cemetery is a place of remembrance for the Polish nation, of liberty and of the right to

self-determination The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a ''jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It stat ...

. The Wall of Remembrance honours the memory of the

Polish Armed Forces in the West The Polish Armed Forces in the West () refers to the Polish military formations formed to fight alongside the Western Allies against Nazi Germany and its allies during World War II. Polish forces were also raised within Soviet territories; thes ...

and the

Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...

, the

Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia The massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia ( pl, rzeź wołyńska, lit=Volhynian slaughter; uk, Волинська трагедія, lit=Volyn tragedy, translit=Volynska trahediia), were carried out in German-occupied Poland by the ...

(1943-1945), during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and of the dissident union

Solidarność Solidarity ( pl, „Solidarność”, ), full name Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity" (, abbreviated ''NSZZ „Solidarność”'' ), is a Polish trade union founded in August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland. Subseq ...

(1980s). The history of the cemetery became synonymous with the history of Poland during the 20th-century. It has received the bodies of insurgents and of deportees. Soil from Katyn has been deposited there. In the 1960s, the cemetery became a place of resistance to

Communist Poland The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...

. People who declined to return to Poland while under occupation or under

martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

chose to be buried there.

Some notable burials

Joseph Babinski Joseph Jules François Félix Babinski ( pl, Józef Julian Franciszek Feliks Babiński; 17 November 1857 – 29 October 1932) was a French-Polish professor of neurology. He is best known for his 1896 description of the Babinski sign, a pathologic ...

(1857-1952), neurologist *

Bolesław Biegas Bolesław Biegas (1877–1954) was a Polish people, Polish, surrealist and Symbolist painter and sculptor. Biography Biegas was born in Koziczyn, Poland and orphaned at a young age. He began studying sculpture in Warsaw in the studio of a loca ...

(1877-1954), painter and sculptor *

Olga Boznańska Olga Boznańska (15 April 1865 – 26 October 1940) was a Polish painter of the turn of the 20th century. She was a notable painter in Poland and Europe, and was stylistically associated with the French impressionism, though she rejected this lab ...

(1865-1940), painter *

Aleksander Chodźko Aleksander Borejko Chodźko (30 August 1804 – 27 December 1891) was a Polish poet, Slavist, and Iranologist. Early life He was born in Krzywicze, in the Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus) and attended the Imperial U ...

(1804-1891), orientalist, writer *

, (1770-1861), statesman *

Henryk Dembiński Henryk Dembiński ( hu, Dembinszky Henrik; 16 January 1791 – 13 July 1864) was a Polish engineer, traveler and general. Dembiński was born in Strzałków, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. In 1809 he entered the Polish army of the Duchy of Warsa ...

(1791-1864), general *

Cyprien Godebski Cyprian Godebski (30 October 1835 – 25 November 1909) was a Polish sculptor known in the Russian Empire and Paris. From 1870 he was a professor at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. He was the grandson of Polish poet and novelist ...

(1835-1909), sculptor *

Antoni Gorecki Antoni Gorecki (1787 – 18 September 1861) was a Polish poet and writer, author of satires and short stories for children. He was born in 1787 in Vilnius, where he finished primary school. In 1802 he started studying at the Faculty of Lit ...

(1787-1861), poet *

Aleksander Jełowicki Aleksander Jełowicki (18 December 1804 in Hubnyk - 15 April 1877 in Rome) was a Polish writer, poet, translator and publisher. He was a veteran of the November Uprising, deputy to the Sejm of Congress Poland for the Haisyn powiat and politi ...

(1804-1877), insurgent, editor, poet, priest *

Teodor Jełowicki Teodor Adam-Michał Jełowicki (9 November 1828 - 1905) was a Polish landowner of princely Ruthenians, Ruthenian descent, secretary general of the Kyiv council, Marshal of the Uman Raion, Uman Powiat, musician, diarist, prisoner, exile in Paris ...

(1828-1905), politician, musician, philanthropist *

Zygmunt Kaczkowski Zygmunt Kaczkowski (1825–1896) was a Polish writer, independence activist, and an Austrian spy. He was convicted in 1864 of espionage by an underground court in the January Uprising. There is a consensus that this accomplished writer is today a ...

(1825-1896), poet * Marya Kasterska (1893-1969), writer, journalist * Aleksander Kawałkowski (1899-1965), officer and diplomat *

(1762-1842), general, politician *

Tadeusz Makowski Tadeusz Makowski (29 January 1882, Oświęcim - 1 November 1932, Paris) was a Polish painter who worked in France and was associated with the School of Paris. Biography From 1902 to 1906, he studied classical philology at the Jagiellonian Uni ...

(1882-1932), painter * Ludwik Mękarski (1843-1923), engineer *

(1798-1855), poet and writer (repatriated to

Wawel Castle The Wawel Royal Castle (; ''Zamek Królewski na Wawelu'') and the Wawel Hill on which it sits constitute the most historically and culturally significant site in Poland. A fortified residency on the Vistula River in Kraków, it was established on ...

in 1890) *

(1757-1841), statesman and poet * Antoni Oleszczyński (1774-1879), painter *

(1821-1883), artist, poet dramatist *

Władysław Oleszczyński Władysław Oleszczyński (17 December 1807 in Końskowola – 11 April 1866 in Rome) was a Polish sculptor who created a monument of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań and the tombstone of Juliusz Słowacki at the Montmartre Cemetery in Paris. Refe ...

(1807-1866), sculptor *

Bronisław Piłsudski Bronisław Piotr Piłsudski (; ; 2 November 1866 – 17 May 1918) was an ethnologist, who researched the Ainu people after he was exiled by the Tsar Alexander III of Russia to the Far East. Piłsudski pioneered research into Lithuanian cro ...

(1866-1918), anthropologist, ethnographer *

Helena Paderewska Helena Maria Paderewska (née von Rosen; previously Górska) (August 1, 1856 – January 16, 1934) was a Polish social activist who helped found the Polish White Cross society during World War I (among other humanitarian activities), and also is k ...

(1856-1934), social activist, wife of

Ignacy Paderewski Ignacy Jan Paderewski (; – 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist and composer who became a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the new nation's Prime Minister and foreign minister during which he signed the Treaty of Versaill ...

Roman Palester Roman Palester (28 December 1907 – 25 August 1989) was a Polish composer of classical music. Palester composed his most significant work during the 1960s and was the first Polish musician to be awarded the Alfred Jurzykowski Prize in 1964. ...

(1907-1989), musical composer * Edward Pożerski-Pomian (1875-1964), medical researcher *

Kazimierz Sosnkowski General Kazimierz Sosnkowski (; Warsaw, 19 November 1885 – 11 October 1969, Arundel, Quebec) was a Polish independence fighter, general, diplomat, and architect. He was a major political figure and an accomplished commander, notable in p ...

(1885-1969), general, politician *

Aleksander Wat Aleksander Wat was the pen name of Aleksander Chwat (1 May 1900 – 29 July 1967), a Polish poet, writer, art theoretician, memorist, and one of the precursors of the Polish futurism movement in the early 1920s, considered to be one of the more i ...

(1900-1967), writer *

Władysław Zamoyski Count Władysław Zamoyski (1853–1924) was a French-born Polish nobleman ( szlachcic), diplomat and heir of Kórnik, Głuchów, Janusz, Babin and Bargów (estates in the Grand Duchy of Poznań). Having acquired estates on the Polish ...

(1803–1868), general,

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

veteran, politician

References

External links