Description
Père-Lachaise is the largest cemetery in Paris, 44 hectares of hillside in the 20th arrondissement, and one of the most visited in the world. It is laid out like an English garden, with winding paths, old trees and tombs of every style, and people come as much for the walk as for the famous dead.
Many come for Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison. Others look for Marcel Proust, Édith Piaf, the composer Bizet, Molière and La Fontaine.
The most moving spot is the Communards' Wall, where 147 fighters of the Paris Commune were shot in 1871. It is still a rallying point for the French Left.
At the tomb of Abélard and Héloïse, lovers leave letters. And foxes live among the graves. Three World War I memorials stand here too, and the crematorium, the first built in France, took its first cremation in 1889.
The cemetery opened in 1804 on the hill of Mont-Louis, with just 13 graves. Too far from the city, Parisians said, and many Catholics refused to lie in ground the Church had not blessed. So the administrators came up with a marketing plan.
In 1817, with great fanfare, they moved in the remains of Molière and La Fontaine. Then came the purported bones of Abélard and Héloïse, the star-crossed lovers of the Middle Ages. It worked: by 1830 there were more than 33,000 graves, and everyone wanted to rest among the famous.
The name comes from Père La Chaise, confessor to Louis XIV, who lived in a Jesuit house on the site.
The architect Brongniart took English gardens as his model. It was expanded five times, in 1824, 1829, 1832, 1842 and 1850, and holds more than a million burials, with many more in the columbarium, built in 1894 and topped by a Byzantine-style dome.
Many come for Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison. Others look for Marcel Proust, Édith Piaf, the composer Bizet, Molière and La Fontaine.
The most moving spot is the Communards' Wall, where 147 fighters of the Paris Commune were shot in 1871. It is still a rallying point for the French Left.
At the tomb of Abélard and Héloïse, lovers leave letters. And foxes live among the graves. Three World War I memorials stand here too, and the crematorium, the first built in France, took its first cremation in 1889.
The cemetery opened in 1804 on the hill of Mont-Louis, with just 13 graves. Too far from the city, Parisians said, and many Catholics refused to lie in ground the Church had not blessed. So the administrators came up with a marketing plan.
In 1817, with great fanfare, they moved in the remains of Molière and La Fontaine. Then came the purported bones of Abélard and Héloïse, the star-crossed lovers of the Middle Ages. It worked: by 1830 there were more than 33,000 graves, and everyone wanted to rest among the famous.
The name comes from Père La Chaise, confessor to Louis XIV, who lived in a Jesuit house on the site.
The architect Brongniart took English gardens as his model. It was expanded five times, in 1824, 1829, 1832, 1842 and 1850, and holds more than a million burials, with many more in the columbarium, built in 1894 and topped by a Byzantine-style dome.