The Cimetière Sainte-Marguerite was a cemetery in a common ditch located between

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 the village of

Charonne The Charonne quarter is an area of the 20th arrondissement of Paris named after a former municipality in the area, which was merged into the city of Paris in 1860 by Napoleon III and split between Charonne quarter (south part), the Père-Lachais ...

during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

. It was level with 36 rue Saint-Bernard and beside église Sainte-Marguerite in the

11th arrondissement of Paris The 11th arrondissement of Paris (''XIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''onzième''. The arrondissement, called Popincourt, is situated on ...

. It received 73 guillotined prisoners from

place de la Bastille The Place de la Bastille is a square in Paris where the Bastille prison once stood, until the storming of the Bastille and its subsequent physical destruction between 14 July 1789 and 14 July 1790 during the French Revolution. No vestige of the ...

between 9 and 12 June 1794 then the first victims from place du Trône Renversé (now

place de la Nation The Place de la Nation (formerly Place du Trône, subsequently Place du Trône-Renversé during the Revolution) is a circle on the eastern side of Paris, between Place de la Bastille and the Bois de Vincennes, on the border of the 11th and 12t ...

) before bodies from there started being sent to the cimetière de Picpus. In November 1846, during the

July Monarchy The July Monarchy (french: Monarchie de Juillet), officially the Kingdom of France (french: Royaume de France), was a liberal constitutional monarchy in France under , starting on 26 July 1830, with the July Revolution of 1830, and ending 23 F ...

, abbé Haumet, parish priest of Sainte-Marguerite, planned building work on the church and checked its foundations, finding several burials, including the remains of an anthropomorphic lead coffin containing bones. The skull from among these bones was identified as

Louis XVII Louis XVII (born Louis Charles, Duke of Normandy; 27 March 1785 – 8 June 1795) was the younger son of King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette. His older brother, Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France, died in June 1789, a little over a m ...

. Re-exhumed in 1894, they were identified as those of a teenager aged between 14 and 18 or possibly older, whereas Louis died aged only 10.

External links (in French)

Cimetiere Sainte-Marguerite

{{Cemeteries in France Sainte-Marguerite category:11th arrondissement of Paris category:French Revolution Louis XVII Burial sites of the House of Bourbon