The cemeteries of Nantes include Bouteillerie, Chauvinière, Cimetière Parc, Miséricorde, Pont du Cens, Saint-Clair, Saint-Donatien, Saint-Jacques, Saint-Joseph-de-Porterie, Saint-Martin (old and new), Sainte-Anne (old and new), Toutes-Aides, and Vieux-Doulon.

The respect given to beliefs, convictions, burial choices, the geographical location in fully urbanized areas (with one exception), and current regulations can be attributed to a historical process.

[5] Abbé Travers described it as comprising two cemeteries enclosed by hedges, planted with trees, and separated by the road leading from the Saint-Pierre gate to the city center.

During this same period, the Nantes municipality requisitioned the Saint-Léonard cemetery to allow the layout of a new road, which serves as an indication of the prevailing mindset of the time: urban space must be reserved for the living.

[K 6] From September 1470 until the French Revolution, the northwest side of the current Ogée street was occupied by the cemetery of the Notre-Dame parish collegiate,[7] which was sold in 1790 and subsequently destroyed, along with the graves it contained, including that of Alain Barbe-Torte.

Furthermore, numerous monasteries in Nantes, including the Cordeliers, Jacobins, Carmes, Capucins, Chartreux, Visitandines, Carmelites, Clarisses, Tertiaries of Saint-Elizabeth, Penitents, and others, had designated burial sites.

An attempt to relocate the cemetery, which was situated in an area undergoing urban expansion, was unsuccessful due to the refusal of the local parishioners to inter the executed with their dead.

[K 5][Note 1] In the Gazette de la santé dated February 10, 1774, it was reported that near Nantes, when a man had just died, it was decided to transfer the bodies of his deceased family members buried elsewhere to his grave, resulting in the death of the four individuals handling the exhumation and severe poisoning of the six priests present.

[K 8] According to A. Lemaître, the disqualification of the regular clergy at the end of the Ancien Régime led municipal officials to target church property to create public spaces and burial sites.

[LK 4] Upon Charette's interment in the cemetery, a plaster cast of his face was created 25 hours after his demise by the plasterer-visage Jean Cazanne, who resided on Crébillon Street.

Mr. Houeix de la Brousse sought to enclose the land, plant trees, and place a black marble stele with the inscription "Pax illis.

[LA 4] In 1881, Nantes, under the leadership of Charles Lechat, enacted a mandate requiring the use of funeral carriages for transporting deceased persons over the age of eight, replacing the practice of using bearers.

[LA 6] However, the results were not deemed satisfactory by local officials, primarily due to the financial burden associated with implementing Coupry's proposed system and the subsequent dissolution of his collaboration with the company (a similar fate befell him in Bordeaux).

This account illustrates the transformation of cemeteries in Nantes, which were previously non-monetary and often unhealthy under the Ancien Régime, into financially exploitable and, for commercial interests, healthy sites.

The pressure on land eventually led to the exodus of burial sites, with the rising price per square meter prompting the establishment of the Cemetery Park in a remote location outside the city center, only in 1979.

On March 24, 1726, a royal edict by Louis XV required several cities, including Nantes, to construct an enclosed cemetery with a warden to oversee the interment of Protestant foreigners dying in France.

[M 2] After the Revolution, an attempt was made to address the issue by requiring municipalities with residents of various faiths to create separate zones, as stipulated by Article 15 of the law of 23 Prairial, year XII.

In 1869, the body of Madame Tamelier, a Protestant, was retained in a shed for sixteen days due to the refusal of her relatives to bury her in the section designated for unbaptized children and suicides, the sole area accessible following the law.

[K 19] In the Pont du Cens cemetery, a military section contains the graves of 112 British airmen killed during World War II, and a stele has been erected in memory of the French buried overseas.

In 1774, the property was purchased by the parishes of Saint-Clément, Sainte-Croix, Saint-Denis, Saint-Laurent, Saint-Léonard, Sainte-Radegonde, Saint-Vincent, and the collegiate church of Notre-Dame to serve as their common cemetery, as decreed by King Louis XVI's Council of State.

[K 24] To compensate for the used space, the city purchased 7,739 square meters of neighboring land, part of which was devoted to the cemetery, thus bringing the total area to approximately 6 hectares.

[20] Following the conclusion of World War II, the grave of André Le Moal, one of those executed in retaliation for Karl Hotz's death, was relocated to La Chauvinière.

[K 28] In 1837, the cemetery was considered "the most beautiful" in Nantes,[K 27] prompting the municipal council to provide a monumental gate at the entrance on rue du Bourget, in line with Auvours Streets.

[K 34] Notable burials include painter René Pinard (1883-1938), Nantes mayor and deputy Auguste Pageot (1888-1962), and Dr. Paul Macé, municipal and district councilor.

[30] Excavations conducted in the early 1870s to expand the church revealed, on July 16, 1873, stone coffins and sarcophagi surrounding the initial sanctuary, thereby attesting to the cemetery's antiquity and the tradition of interring the deceased in proximity to sacred sites.

[31] On June 18, 1796 (2 Messidor, year IV), brothers Antoine and Mathurin Peccot, a government commissioner at the Nantes Mint and an architect, respectively, purchased the church, chapel, rectory, and cemetery, which had been sold as a national property.

In 1791, Nantes annexed Saint-Jacques, and in 1811, the city acquired three plots of land, collectively comprising nearly 7,500 square meters, at La Terre Rouge, on the Bonne-Garde road, situated on the Clisson route.

Additionally, a monument has been erected in memory of the victims of the Saint-Philibert steamboat shipwrecking, in which nearly 500 individuals perished when the vessel transporting passengers from the island of Noirmoutier to the mainland sank.

In 1851, Nantes city council committed to spending a specified sum to construct a wall surrounding the graves, with any cost overruns and material transport being the responsibility of the parishioners.

The city acquired approximately 1,300 square meters of market garden land where lily of the valley, carnations, radishes, salads, vine shoots, and pear trees were cultivated.