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Origin and history

The cemetery of Aixe-sur-Vienne, located in the department of Haute-Vienne in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, is marked by a chapel of the 4th quarter of the 13th century, inscribed as historical monuments since February 6, 1926. This religious building, formerly vaulted and oriented to the west, stands on the site of a church and a missing collegiate. Its particularity lies in an underground swimming pool, fed by a source formerly known as miraculous, diverted in the 19th century during the development of the cemetery. The swimming pool then served as an ossuary, while the chapel, restored in 1993, retained a medieval Pietà integrated with its altar in fire. Its architecture combines Gothic elements (archicvolt with cavets, columns) and a massive structure crowned with rampants.

The chapel, dedicated to the Virgin and Saint John, is cited in the Nadaud Fountain as a foundation of the vicaries of the church of Tarn. Forbidden in 1741 under the episcopate of Bishop Coetlosquet for unspecified reasons, she was rehabilitated much later. The site also houses the graves of two figures of the Limous Resistance: Eugene Pinte (1902–1951), an officer engaged in the maquis, and his son Marcel Pinte (1938–1944), considered the youngest resistant in France, both "Dead for France". These burials highlight the dual heritage of the place, both medieval and memorial.

The cemetery, owned by the town of Aixe-sur-Vienne (code Insee 87001), is located at 2 Rue de la Pouge. Its chapel, the only protected element, illustrates the evolution of funeral and religious practices in Limousin, between medieval Marian worship, reuse of sacred spaces, and homage to local heroes. The available sources (Wikipedia, Mérimée base, Monumentum) confirm its status as an emblematic monument of Upper Vienna, linked to the religious and resistant history of the region.

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