The Russian tombs
Orthodox domes among the cypresses above the bay.
ACOR Cannes — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Seauton — CC BY 4.0 · Seauton, 14 April 2026 — CC BY 4.0 · ManoSolo13241324 — CC BY-SA 4.0
Because in the nineteenth century the Riviera was **a medical prescription**: doctors sent tuberculosis patients from England, Russia and northern Europe to the warm Mediterranean winter in search of a cure. Thousands came with their families and built the villas and the churches — and those who were not cured were buried here. The cemetery is the clearest witness to that era: names, titles and languages from half of Europe on a single hillside above the sea.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet — be the first.
The Grand Jas cemetery is not a conventional sight, but it is one of the quietest places in Cannes and one of the most revealing about its history: a terraced burial ground on a hillside since 1866, planted with cypress, pine and palm, its terraces climbing to a view over the bay. Its story is Cannes's own: when the town became the winter resort of the European aristocracy in the nineteenth century, many came **ill with tuberculosis**, seeking warm air — and those who died were buried here. So the cemetery is full of grand **English, Russian and Scandinavian** tombs with European names and titles, some under Orthodox domes — the trace of an entire community that lived and died far from home. It also holds the grave of the French writer **Prosper Mérimée** — author of *Carmen*, on which Bizet built his opera — who died in Cannes in 1870. A silent, shaded place for walking and reading headstones, ten minutes from the Croisette's noise — and not for every visitor.
Orthodox domes among the cypresses above the bay.
The author of Carmen, who died in Cannes in 1870.
Chemin du Grand Jas, 06400 Cannes