It is the largest of the 14 cemeteries and graveyards managed by the Service Cimetières of the City of Luxembourg.

After the Church of St. Nicholas in the city centre was torn down, and the seat of the St. Nicholas parish was transferred to the former Jesuit church (now the Cathedral), in 1779 the parish graveyard was moved outside the city walls to the Glacis.

[1] The new graveyard was on land near the Notre-Dame Chapel (German: Kapelle Unserer Lieben Frau, French: Chapelle Notre-Dame), also called the Neipuertskapell (Luxembourgish for "New Gate Chapel").

The new cemetery was essentially just an extension of a graveyard which had already existed by the chapel since 1691 and where those were buried who had been condemned to death but were not criminals, such as deserters.

Two gardens were added to the old graveyard, one of which belonged to the chapel, while the other was the property of the Holy Ghost monastery.