Cimetière Marin

The Saint Charles cemetery was established around 1680 in order to be able to adequately bury the first workers who were killed during the construction of the Saint-Louis-Mole.

It reveals the diversity of the city's population through the centuries and has been gradually expanded to include parcels, one of which is reserved for the Protestant community, which was of crucial importance in the boom of the port in the 18th and 19th centuries.

It is also called the “cemetery of the rich”, in contrast to the “cemetery of the poor”, which is opposite the Étang de Thau (resting place of Georges Brassens).

Several graves recall the city's maritime past, including one in honor of the pilots who were lost at sea when they came to the aid of a ship in distress, or that of the young junior naval officer candidate Eugène Herber, who died in Beijing in 1900.

Others testify to the celebrity of various people from Sète, such as the minister Mario Roustan, the theater man Jean Vilar and others. v. a. The cemetery was still called Cimetière Saint-Charles until August 7, 1945. It was then renamed Cimetière Marin, Cemetery by the Sea, in reference to the famous poem by Paul Valéry (excerpt below). Paul Valéry himself is buried there too.

The beginning of the poem "Cimetière Marin" by Paul Valéry (published in 1920), translated into German by Rainer Maria Rilke:


"This silent roof on which there are pigeons,
seems to connect grave and pine in a swinging manner.
The sea, the sea, always new gifts!
O the reward after long thinking
a long look at the gods rune! (...) "

Source: de.tourisme-sete.com/friedhof-am-meer.html