Cayenne Cemetery

Monument - Saint-François

Place of meditation, historical heritage of the commune, the cemetery of Cayenne is also a site of visit, each one finding there the memory of a loved one, the evocation of a local personality, and being able to appreciate, in the same respect, the architectural particularities of such or such burial.  This cemetery was inaugurated in 1932 by Alexandre Macal (1898-1949), who was keen to rehabilitate the memory of all, without exception. The construction of a reinforcing wall at the rear of the cemetery prevented subsidence or landslides. This place of remembrance contributes to a better understanding of the history of Saint-François and its inhabitants. It is based in part on its sugar past, in particular the existence of the Sainte Marthe sugar unit in operation until the 1974s.  This is how one can discover the graves with unusual architecture that belonged or still belong to the families of the main founders of this factory and its workers. The Pauvert families (former owners of the Sainte-Marthe factory) Vesoux, Favreau, Florimond, Belloc, Gollin, Girard, to name but a few, some of whose names can now be found in sections, had chosen to bury their dead in this cemetery. There are also the burials of personalities who worked for the commune, that of Alexandre Macal (mayor until 1947), Lucien Bernier, mayor from 1947 to 1989, lawyer, senator of Guadeloupe from 1958 to 1989, general councillor, President of the General Council (1973-1976 then 1979-1982). Refurbishments were undertaken in 2004 and subsequent years to restore them to their original appearance. Other special features are also to be highlighted, such as the only grave containing the bodies of some 80 victims of the deadly cyclone of September 1928. The city has taken care to honour them by offering them a dignified burial in memory of this sad event. Finally, we can observe the presence of religious graves, whose small dimensions seem to suggest that the bodies were in the church, as was the custom at the time, but which had a precise meaning because of their location, namely the representation of "the Church" within the cemetery.