Veteran Cemeteries

Overseas American military cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery

France

Maintained outside the United States by the American Battle Monuments Commission, a U.S. federal agency.

Location

Normandy American Cemetery, Route du Cimetiere Americain, Colleville-sur-Mer, France

The map point uses the coordinates the American Battle Monuments Commission publishes for this cemetery. Get directions · View on OpenStreetMap

Visiting

Address
Normandy American Cemetery, Route du Cimetiere Americain, Colleville-sur-Mer, France
Visiting hours
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The cemetery is open to the public daily, except on December 25 and January 1. It is open on host country holidays.
Accessibility
Not yet verified — call the cemetery to ask about parking and paths.
Official page
abmc.gov

Details are as published by the American Battle Monuments Commission, checked November 11, 2026. Hours change for holidays, weather and ceremonies.

Admission and hours, from the American Battle Monuments Commission

Business Hours

  • 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

    Please note, admission to the cemetery ends at 4:30 p.m., 30 minutes before closing time.

  • The cemetery is open to the public daily, except on December 25 and January 1. It is open on host country holidays.

    When open, a staff member is on duty in the visitor building to answer questions and escort relatives to grave and memorial sites.

    To plan a site visit, a visit to a relative’s grave, request a group visit, special tour, or wreath laying ceremony, please contact NormandyVisits@abmc.gov.

  • Admission is FREE and does not currently require booking in advance.

    However, to learn more about anticipated reservation changes at Normandy American Cemetery please see our Visiting Normandy American Cemetery page.

Planning a visit to a veterans cemetery

Pay your respects

Visitors to veterans’ graves sometimes leave a coin on the headstone to show that someone came. You can leave a symbolic coin here. No money is involved, and nothing about you is published. About the custom, and what each coin is said to mean.

About this cemetery

Reproduced from the American Battle Monuments Commission’s own description of this cemetery, retrieved November 11, 2026. This is the agency’s text, unedited; it is not independent research by this site.

The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in France is located in Colleville-sur-Mer, on the site of the temporary American St. Laurent Cemetery, established by the U.S. First Army on June 8, 1944 as the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II.

The cemetery site, at the north end of its half mile access road, covers 172.5 acres and contains the graves of almost 9,400 of our military dead, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations. On the Walls of the Missing, in a semicircular garden on the east side of the memorial, are inscribed almost 1,600 names. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.

The memorial consists of a semicircular colonnade with a loggia at each end containing large maps and narratives of the military operations; at the center is the bronze statue, “Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves.” An orientation table overlooking the beach depicts the landings in Normandy. Facing west at the memorial, one sees in the foreground the reflecting pool; beyond is the burial area with a circular chapel and, at the far end, granite statues representing the United States and France.

The $30 million Normandy Visitor Center was dedicated by ABMC on June 6, 2007, during the commemoration of the 63rd Anniversary of D-Day. The center is sited in a wooded area of the cemetery approximately 100 meters east of the Garden of the Missing.

Learn more about the architecture, exhibits, inscriptions, and the project team for the visitor center.

Normandy is ABMC’s most visited cemetery, receiving more than one million visitors each year. To plan a site visit, a visit to a relative’s grave, request a group visit, special tour, or wreath laying ceremony, please contact NormandyVisits@abmc.gov. To learn more about anticipated registration changes and sign up for updates concerning visiting Normandy American Cemetery please see our Visiting Normandy American Cemetery page.

Due to security concerns, the pathway from Normandy American Cemetery to the beach was closed to the public in 2016. However, public beach access is available nearby.

The flag lowering ceremony is held one hour before the cemetery closes to the public.

For questions, please contact NormandyVisits@abmc.gov.

Read the Commission’s full history of this cemetery

Nearby veterans cemeteries

Distances are straight-line, not driving distances. All overseas cemeteries

Sources

  1. American Battle Monuments Commission. Cemeteries and memorials. U.S. government work (public domain). Retrieved November 11, 2026. Used for: name, location and contact details, and the hours and description where shown.
  2. American Battle Monuments Commission. Normandy American Cemetery (official page). Retrieved November 11, 2026.

This page was imported from the sources above and has not yet been individually reviewed by an editor. See the methodology.