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Heritage classified

Origin and history

The cemetery cross of Joncreuil is a monument located in the municipality of the same name, in the department of the Aube, in the Grand Est region. Dating from the 3rd quarter of the 17th century, it embodies the funerary architecture typical of this period, marked by a strong religious presence in public spaces. Its location in the heart of the cemetery highlights its symbolic and commemorative role for the local community.

Registered as historical monuments by order of 9 November 1988, this cross enjoys heritage protection which recognizes its historical and artistic value. The Merimée database lists it under the cadastral reference B 653, confirming its membership in the communal domain. Although the sources do not specify his sponsor or artist, his style reflects the regional traditions of the time, where the cemetery crosses served both as a spiritual landmark and as an identity marker for the villages.

Like other similar monuments in Champagne-Ardenne (now Great East), this cross is part of a rural context where the Catholic Church structured social life and funeral rites. The cemetery crosses, often erected in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, materialized the boundary between the sacred and the profane, while reminding the faithful of their mortality. Their preservation today offers tangible testimony to the beliefs and craft practices of the Ancien Régime.

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