The Jewish (or
Israelite
Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age.
Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...
) cemetery of Bayonne is a
Jewish cemetery
A Jewish cemetery ( ''beit almin'' or ''beit kvarot'') is a cemetery where Jews are buried in keeping with Halakha, Jewish tradition. Cemeteries are referred to in several different ways in Hebrew, including ''beit kevarot'' (house of s ...
located in
Bayonne
Bayonne () is a city in southwestern France near the France–Spain border, Spanish border. It is a communes of France, commune and one of two subprefectures in France, subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departments of France, departm ...
,
Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Nouvelle-Aquitaine () is the largest Regions of France, administrative region in France by area, spanning the west and southwest of Metropolitan France. The region was created in 2014 by the merging of Aquitaine, Limousin, and Poitou-Charentes ...
. It is located in the Saint-Étienne quarter in the northern part of the city and north of the synagogue.
History
The Jewish cemetery of Bayonne was established in 1689 in the Saint-Étienne neighborhood in the northern quarter of the city.
[.] It was remodeled and enlarged in the 18th and 19th century and covers and area of two hectares. A depository built in the style of the
Temple in Jerusalem
The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. Accord ...
was inaugurated in 1862.
It was a theatre of battle during the
1814 siege of Bayonne.
In spring 2010, the
Jewish Museum of Belgium
The Jewish Museum of Belgium (; ) is a museum in central Brussels, Belgium, focusing on the history of the Jews in Belgium. It is located at 21, / in the Sablon/Zavel district of Brussels. This site is served by the bus stop / (on lines 33, 4 ...
began a restoration project for the cemetery.
[.] No less than nine other summer projects allowed young European volunteers, including members of the
Action Reconciliation Service for Peace
The Action Reconciliation Service for Peace is a German peace organization founded to confront the legacy of Nazism.
The Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (German: Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste, or ASF) was founded in 1958 by the syn ...
, to uncover hundreds of headstones, covering a period burials from 1654 to 1806. The cemetery is owned by the Israelite Cultural Association of Bayonne.
Description
The cemetery was listed as a
monument historique
() is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, ...
on July 15, 1998.
It is the oldest Jewish cemetery in France,
[According to the Israelite Central Consistory of Bordeaux, it is the largest Jewish cemetery dating back to the 17th century
] and has conserved numerous ancient headstones — nearly 3000 dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries. The depository from 1862 in the style of the ancient Temple has also been classified as a monument historique.
File:Bayonne_cimetiere_juif.jpg, link=Fichier:Bayonne_cimetiere_juif.jpg, alt=Alignement de pierres tombales en arrière plan du feuillage d’un arbre., The 19th Century Section
File:Cimetière_Israélite_(Bayonne).jpg, link=Fichier:Cimetière_Israélite_(Bayonne).jpg, alt=Alignement de tombes, devant une rangée d’arbres., The 18th Century section
Notes and references
Notes
References
{{Reflist
1689 establishments
Jewish cemeteries in France
Monuments historiques of Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Cemeteries in France