River Baroness Cruise Photos

From: Uniworld River Baroness cruise review

Day 4: Rouen (2)

One of the more interesting stops during our walking tour was the Aître Saint-Maclou, a half-timbered charnel house around a plague cemetery that was built in the early 1500s.

(In the photo above, Irina Larouge--an excellent local tour guide--recounts the aître's history.)

Today, the courtyard looks like a small park, but from 1348 until the late 1700s, it was a mass grave for victims of the plague or "Black Death."

When the plague hit Rouen for the second time in the 16th Century, the mass grave from 1348 was dug up, and the bones were moved to a new charnel house that had been built around the plague cemetery.

In these two close-up photos, you can see skulls, bones, and other death-related symbols carved into the timbers of the charnel house. (The windows were added later, after the remains of plague victims were moved elsewhere.)

Despite the Halloween-like decorations, l'Aître Saint-Maclou's days as a cemetery and charnel house are over. The buildings now house the regional école des Beaux-Arts, or School of Fine Arts.