Cemetery

Until the mid-XIX century, the cemetery was located just below the church, on the Aravis mountain side. In 1816/17, following very heavy snowfall, the church had to be rebuilt. During work on the new foundations, bodies were discovered all around the church.

In 1850, the Prefect ordered that the cemetry be moved. To pay for the work, former residents of Le Grand Bornand who had left the village donated 2400 pounds and a further 660 pounds was raised by the villagers themselves. The new cemetery was relocated to a field just opposite of the main door of the church and it was inaugurated in 1854. The original site became free for the building of the first village hall.

By the end of the 1950's, winter tourism was developping fast in Le Grand Bornand. There was pressure to design a more functional village square to serve the needs of the Town Hall and the Tourist Office. Building the new square also enabled the development of shops and restaurants. At the same time, the 1921/1923 war memorial, which used to be beside the main road, was relocated to be beside the new cemetery site.

This is how the cemetry came to be moved once again, between 1957 and 1963, to its present site beside the Borne river and on the road below the Tourist Office.