The Eastern Cemetery (Cimetière de l’Est) was created in 1887 and it is the largest cemetery in the city of Rennes.
The contemporary cemetery, where diversity and innovation are keywords, is a true reflection of the modern city of Rennes, its inhabitants and also developments of the funeral practices since the end of the 19th century. The architectural and sociological perspectives aspects of this location are interesting.
In addition, the military heritage is also very important. The German military section and the Commonwealth section show the European dimension of the East Cemetery. Every summer, many foreign tourists come to visit these graves.
Furthermore, some important personalities are buried at the East cemetery. One of them is Guy Parigot, a well-known actor theater Producer who had a brilliant carrer in Rennes, in France and also worldwide, mostly in the United States and Canada.
In the middle of the cemetery, one can see a central way planted by bicentenary oak trees on each side, which were offered by the Tsra Nicolas II of Russia. At the main entrance of the cemeterya room is available for families wha want to pay their respect to the deceased and to organize civil funerals.
The East cemetery is owned by the City of Rennes and managed by its Funeral department. It covers 163.142m² of land and includes 29.000 graves, of which 2.000 are military graves. There are also 1.600 cinerary niches (1.000 places in columbarium, 500 urn tombs, ans 100 cinerary places).
The most representative nationalities buried at the cemetery are French and Maghreb (mainly Algerian and Moroccan). the predominant religions present are Catholic, Islamic, Jewish and Buddhist.
Further information : http://cimetieres.rennes.fr