Dates

• Existence: 1840 - c1857

Biography

The Cimetière Catholiques or French Cemetery as it came to be known is the oldest consecrated European cemetery in the South Island. It opened in 1840 and was sanctified by the Catholic Bishop Pompallier in 1847. The cemetery was the first in Akaroa and therefore would have had both French and English burials until the Akaroa Anglican Cemetery and Akaroa Dissenters Cemetery were opened at the opposite end of the Akaroa settlement.