When you leave the church, turn left and follow the apse wall: you will be at the foot of the old cemetery. Over time, the forest overtook the area, making it inaccessible and forbidding. Now, it has been entirely cleared, the surrounding walls have been realigned or rebuilt, and the graves have been put in order. This has been done by the Association of the friends of the church of Mont.
At the foot of the apse, you’ll see the tombs of the Farnier family, with a circular stone marker, and a place where a little bell (in gold, so the legend says) was put to note the location of the family’s resting place.
The remains of funeral art that have been found and set upright are evidence of a local tradition: until the 18th century, the tombstones were made of modest blocks, barely sculpted. However, in the 19th century, the monuments reflected the importance of the family, their social status, and their wealth. Some of the funeral monuments could have been two or three meters high.
In Mont-devant-Sassey, many of the tombstones were topped with a wrought- iron or cast-iron cross, and the plots were bordered by a small railing and a gate which defined the plot’s space. Certain monuments copied styles and architectural elements and were ornamented with statues and bas-relief. The inscriptions carved on the tombstones are, for the most part, very moving.