Cimetière Ouest de Boulogne Billancourt

The Cimetière Ouest of Boulogne-Billancourt exists today because of a massive urban project led by Baron Haussmann in the nineteenth century. When the city needed land for the construction of the Longchamp racecourse in the Bois de Boulogne, the local cemetery that stood there was expropriated and dismantled. In eighteen fifty-six, the city took action to establish this new burial ground on the rue de l'Ouest, and it officially opened to the public in eighteen fifty-nine. This site represents a major shift in the area's geography, marking the forced displacement of the dead to make room for imperial infrastructure.