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All France Paris 'Victims of Revolutions'
AO Edited

'Victims of Revolutions'

French sculptor Paul Moreau-Vauthier transformed the site of a 19th-century massacre into a haunting memorial.

Paris, France

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SEANETTA ALLSASS
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This deeply unsettling memorial is built out of the wall where 150 people were slaughtered.   LPLT / CC BY 30
If you look closely, it appears as though the victims are trapped inside the walls.   SEANETTA / Atlas Obscura User
One-hundred-and-fifty men and women were lined up against this wall and executed.   SEANETTA / Atlas Obscura User
This unusual monument remembers a terrible massacre.   SEANETTA / Atlas Obscura User
Bullet holes can still be seen in the stones.   SEANETTA / Atlas Obscura User
The original bullet hoels are part of the work.   SEANETTA / Atlas Obscura User
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Pere Lachaise Cemetery covers an impressive 110 acres. In this vast expanse one will find many monuments and memorials dedicated to both heroes and casualties of various conflicts. One such unsettling shrine, which can be found on the exterior wall that surrounds the burial ground, depicts men and women crying out in agony. The images of the slaughtered are rather ethereal, appearing as ghostly figures emerging from the stonewall.

This commemoration goes by many names. The one that is most often cited is 'The Victims of Revolutions,' however, it is frequently misidentified as "The Wall of the Fédérés" or Communard's Wall. In the later part of the 19th century, nearly 150 political objectors, made up of both men and women, where lined up against this wall in the burial ground and massacred. These martyred activists, referred to as Communards, were resisting the forces of the Franco-Prussian War. Their unpretentious monument can be located in the south-eastern corner of the cemetery. 

French sculptor Paul Moreau-Vauthier (1871 - 1936), who happens to be laid to rest inside the cemetery, repurposed the original bullet-ridden stones from the massacre. His depiction of the travesty also heavily emulates the events, with a woman standing in front to protect those behind from the ensuing gunfire. On the lower left-hand side is a quote from the French author and novelist Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885)" "What we ask of the future, what we want from it, is justice, not vengeance!"

 

 

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Cemeteries War History Monuments

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Square Samuel de Champlain is a small park that runs parallel to Avenue Gambetta, which travels along the northern edge of Pere laChaise Cemetery. The relief is situated between Metro stops Pere Lachaise and Phillip Auguste.

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SEANETTA

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February 14, 2025

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  • https://videenville.paris/galeries/aux-victimes-des-revolutions/
  • https://esotericart.livejournal.com/105450.html
  • https://www.rfi.fr/en/visiting-france/20110106-truth-buried-paris-cemetery-sculpture-mistook-famous-wall
'Victims of Revolutions'
21 Av. Gambetta
Paris, 75020
France
48.863912, 2.390867
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