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Brotteaux's cement of blood

Published May 20, 2022
Updated Oct 26, 2022

📍 🇫🇷 Burying Lyon

Of the 2,000 inhabitants of Lyon guillotined or machine-gunned for their resistance to the most intense phase of the French Revolution (1789-93), it is the "Brotteaux plain massacre" (September 1792) that is most vividly remembered: nearly 200 victims were shot with cannons and finished off with sabers - their bodies thrown into a blood-red Rhone river.

"Such justice! Such cement for the new Republic!" wrote Collot, one of the organizers, to his Parisian chiefs (Waresquiel).

A pyramid for the dead was first erected in 1814, once calmer days returned, but it was replaced by a rather dull church in 1901. A pediment in classical style, triangular at the top, symmetrical; a Greek-shaped dome inside, with seemingly Venetian laces as a decorative motif.

Finally, beware: bones can be found in the crypt, but on request.

____ Sources ____

>> Waresquiel, "Fouché", 2014

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Theme:
City:
Lyon
Country:
France
Region:
Europe
Century:
18th CE