Nécropole nationale de Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer, Military cemetery in Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer, France.

The Nécropole nationale de Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer is a military burial ground in this southern French coastal town with around 1,080 graves arranged on dedicated grounds. Each grave is marked with standardized military headstones and is systematically recorded to preserve information about those buried here.

The cemetery was founded in 1670 by Colbert, minister of Louis XIV, on the heights of the Saint-Mandrier peninsula. In December 1948 the Ministry of Veterans Affairs took it over and made it a national necropolis. Its 1810 pyramid mausoleum holds Vice-Admiral Latouche-Tréville, who died aboard the Bucentaure in Toulon roadstead on 19 August 1804.

Two flags at the pyramid mark the divide: the French section on the left, the Italian on the right, ceded to the Italian government in 1961. Near the pyramid, an Italian monument reads "Pax Bellum. Al dovere tutto dettero nulla chiesero obbedirono" — to duty they gave everything, asked nothing, obeyed.

The necropolis sits on the heights of the Saint-Mandrier peninsula, opposite the entrance to the military base, so the pyramid mausoleum is the first thing you reach. The Italian section lies to the right of the mausoleum, the French section to the left, marked by two flags. The site is an active military area; stay on the cemetery grounds.

The pyramid at the entrance is a mausoleum from 1810, 8 metres high, flanked by two sphinxes; it holds the tomb of Vice-Admiral Louis-René-Madeleine de Latouche-Tréville, commander of the Mediterranean naval forces, who died aboard his ship Le Bucentaure in Toulon harbour on 19 August 1804. Two flags beside it mark the Italian part on the right and the French part on the left.