Photo spot in Rouen
The Aître Saint-Maclou
A courtyard of timber galleries built around a plague cemetery, with skulls, spades and dancing skeletons carved into the oak posts.
About The Aître Saint-Maclou
Get directionsThe Aître was opened as a burial ground after the Black Death and rebuilt in the sixteenth century as a charnel house: four ranges of half-timbered galleries around a square of grass, with the bones stored in the attics above. The oak posts and beams are carved from end to end with skulls, crossed bones, gravediggers' tools and figures from a danse macabre.
It is a strange, contained, beautiful place and it photographs like a cloister. The gallery arcades give repeated frames, the carvings reward a close lens, and the courtyard itself is small enough that two people fill it. Nothing else in Rouen looks remotely like this.
Entry is free and the site is open to the public, but it is also home to an art school and gets busy, so early morning is the only reliably quiet slot. The courtyard is enclosed and shaded for most of the day, which keeps the light even; check the current opening hours, which are seasonal.
Best time to shoot
As soon as it opens; the courtyard is shaded and even all day
Tips
It is a memorial as much as a monument and an art school works here — keep the group small and quiet. Opening hours are seasonal, so check them for the day.
Other spots in Rouen
The cathedral façade
The west front Monet painted more than thirty times: two mismatched towers, a wall of carved stone, and the tallest church spire in France above it.
Rue du Gros-Horloge
A pedestrian street of leaning half-timbered houses running under a Renaissance arch that carries a single gilded clock face.
Place du Vieux-Marché
The square where Joan of Arc was burned in 1431, now half medieval timber and half a modern church with a roof like an upturned boat.
Ready to book?
Our concierge team will hand-pick 2-3 photographers who know The Aître Saint-Maclou — free of charge.