Normandy Cemeteries: The Complete 2026 Visitor Guide

🇺🇸 Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer

Set on a bluff directly above Omaha Beach, this is the largest American Second World War cemetery in Europe and the most visited D-Day site in France, drawing more than a million visitors a year. Across 172.5 acres lie 9,389 graves, alongside the Walls of the Missing, inscribed with 1,557 names. The bronze statue “Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves” marks the centre of the memorial, and a daily flag-lowering ceremony is held an hour before closing. Among those buried here are Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and his brother Quentin Roosevelt, a First World War airman originally buried elsewhere in France and later reinterred alongside him, together with the Niland brothers, whose story inspired Saving Private Ryan.

Practical info: Free, including the visitor centre. Hours: 9am–6pm mid-April to mid-September, 9am–5pm the rest of the year; closed 25 December and 1 January. A pre-registration system is being phased in by the ABMC through 2026–27 — check abmc.gov before travelling. Note that the pathway leading down from the cemetery directly onto Omaha Beach has been closed to the public since 2016 for security reasons; the beach itself remains freely accessible via its own approach roads. Full details, including the wider Omaha Beach story, are on our Omaha Beach guide.

🇬🇧 Bayeux War Cemetery & Memorial

The largest Commonwealth war cemetery in France, Bayeux holds over 4,000 graves — predominantly British, but including servicemen of many other nationalities, and, unusually for a CWGC site, a number of German graves buried among the Allied dead. Directly opposite stands the Bayeux Memorial, inscribed with the names of 1,800 Commonwealth servicemen who died in the Battle of Normandy but have no known grave. Bayeux itself was the first French city liberated after D-Day, on 7 June 1944, and largely escaped the destruction visited on other Normandy towns.

Practical info: Free, open daily. Address: Boulevard Fabian Ware, Bayeux — a short walk from the town centre and the Bayeux Tapestry Museum (closed for renovation until October 2027).

🇩🇪 La Cambe German War Cemetery

The largest war cemetery of any nation in Normandy, La Cambe holds the remains of 21,245 German soldiers, sailors and airmen — most killed between 6 June and 20 August 1944, ranging in age from 16 to 72. At the centre stands a 6-metre tumulus topped with a basalt cross, beneath which 207 unknown and 89 identified soldiers lie together in a mass grave. Dark stone markers, laid flat in groups of five, spread across 49 plots shaded by oak and beech trees — a design deliberately different in tone from the Allied cemeteries nearby. The adjoining Peace Garden, planted with 1,200 maple trees in 1996, was the first of several such gardens the Volksbund has since created around the world.

Practical info: Free, open daily, 8am–7pm (visitor centre may close for lunch). Address: signposted directly off the N13, between Bayeux and Omaha Beach — around 25km from Omaha, 15km from the Normandy American Cemetery. An information centre on site gives context in French, English and German.

• Look up a grave before you travel, not on arrival: The CWGC, ABMC and Volksbund’s free online databases will save real time and disappointment on the day, especially at the larger sites where finding one specific headstone unassisted can take a while.
• Check the Normandy American Cemetery’s registration status before travelling: A pre-registration system is being introduced by the ABMC through 2026–27 — confirm the current requirement at abmc.gov, particularly around the 6 June anniversary period.
• Don’t skip the German cemeteries: La Cambe and Ryes are consistently the least crowded of the six sites here, and for many visitors, the most quietly affecting — seeing the human cost on every side of the conflict changes how the whole campaign reads.
• Have more time or a specific interest in cemetery architecture? The Brittany American Cemetery at Saint-James (4,410 US graves) is a quieter, lesser-known alternative to Colleville, while the Mont-de-Huisnes German ossuary, near Mont Saint-Michel, is unlike any other Normandy war cemetery — a two-storey circular crypt building rather than open graves, holding German dead from across northern France.
• Visit early or late in the day for the best light and fewest visitors: All six cemeteries are at their most atmospheric — and least busy — in the first or last hour they’re open.
• Bring tissues: It sounds obvious until you’re standing in front of a wall of 1,557 names, or a headstone recording a soldier’s age as 18. Most visitors find at least one of these cemeteries genuinely moving in a way photographs don’t prepare you for.
• Combine cemeteries with the beaches they relate to: Ranville with Pegasus Bridge and Sword Beach, Bény-sur-Mer with Juno Beach, Ryes with Gold Beach, and the Normandy American Cemetery with Omaha Beach — visiting the beach and its cemetery together tells a more complete story than either alone.

How many war cemeteries are there in Normandy?

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission alone maintains 27 major military cemeteries in Normandy, and holds war graves at more than 300 locations across the region’s four departments in total. Add to that the single Normandy American Cemetery and six German war cemeteries maintained by the Volksbund, and Normandy holds well over 30 significant war cemeteries — though most visitors sensibly focus on the six covered in this guide, which between them tell the fullest version of the story.

Which is the largest D-Day cemetery in Normandy?

La Cambe German War Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Normandy overall, holding 21,245 graves. Among Allied cemeteries, the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer is the largest single site with 9,389 graves, while Bayeux War Cemetery is the largest Commonwealth cemetery in France, with over 4,000 graves.

Are Normandy cemeteries free to visit?

Yes — every war cemetery in Normandy is free to enter, whether American, Commonwealth or German. This includes the Normandy American Cemetery’s visitor centre. The only cost most visitors encounter is parking (usually free) or transport to reach the more remote sites, such as La Cambe or the Normandy American Cemetery, without your own car.

How do I find a specific soldier’s grave in Normandy?

For Commonwealth casualties, use the CWGC’s free “Find War Dead” search tool at cwgc.org, which gives the exact cemetery, plot and row. For American servicemen, the ABMC runs an equivalent search at abmc.gov. For German casualties, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge maintains its own online database at volksbund.de. All three are free, searchable by name, and worth checking before you travel so you can go straight to the right row on arrival.

Is photography allowed in Normandy’s war cemeteries?

Yes, personal photography is permitted at all of Normandy’s war cemeteries, including photos beside individual graves. Drones generally require prior permission and are not allowed to be flown casually. As a matter of courtesy rather than formal rule, most visitors avoid posed or celebratory-style photography at individual headstones, given these remain active places of mourning for many families.

Can you visit German war cemeteries in Normandy?

Yes, and it’s genuinely worth doing. German war cemeteries such as La Cambe and Ryes are open to the public, free, and maintained to the same immaculate standard as the Allied sites. They receive far fewer visitors than the American and Commonwealth cemeteries, but offer an essential, often overlooked perspective — a reminder that the human cost of the Battle of Normandy fell on every side of the conflict, including many very young conscripted soldiers with little choice in the matter.

Are dogs allowed in Normandy’s war cemeteries?

It varies by site. The Normandy American Cemetery does not permit dogs of any kind, other than registered service animals. CWGC-maintained cemeteries such as Bayeux, Ranville, Bény-sur-Mer and Ryes generally allow well-behaved dogs on a lead, and La Cambe’s open grounds are similarly relaxed. Always check signage on arrival, since rules can change, particularly during busy anniversary periods.