The Père Lachaise is located in the20th arrondissement and was the firstgarden cemetery, as well as the first municipal cemetery in Paris.[2] It is also the site of threeWorld War I memorials. The cemetery is located on the Boulevard de Ménilmontant. TheParis Métro stationPhilippe Auguste onLine 2 is next to the main entrance, while the stationPère Lachaise, on bothLine 2 andLine 3, is 500 m (1,640 ft) away near a side entrance.
The cemetery of Père Lachaise opened in 1804[3] and takes its name from the confessor toLouis XIV,Père François de la Chaise (1624–1709), who lived in theJesuit house rebuilt during 1682 on the site of the chapel. The property, situated on the hillside from which the king watched skirmishing between the armies of theCondé andTurenne duringthe Fronde, was bought by the city in 1804. Established as a cemetery byNapoleon during that year, plans were laid out byAlexandre-Théodore Brongniart; the property was later extended. Napoleon, who had been proclaimed Emperor by the Senate three days earlier, had declared during the Consulate: "Every citizen has the right to be buried regardless of race or religion."[citation needed]
The House ofPère Lachaise, Mont-Louis, in the 17th century.
After the closing of theHoly Innocents' Cemetery on 1 December 1780 and as the city graveyards of Paris filled, several new, large cemeteries, outside the precincts of the capital, replaced them:Montmartre Cemetery in the north; Père Lachaise in the east; andMontparnasse Cemetery in the south. Near the middle of the city isPassy Cemetery.[4]
In 1803, the French officials approved the transformation of 17 hectares (42 acres) of Mont-Louis into the Cemetery of the East, and the work was given to neoclassical architectAlexandre-Theodore Brongniart. He usedEnglish-style gardens as inspiration,[5] designing the cemetery with uneven paths adorned with diverse trees and plants and lined with carved graves. He anticipated various funerary monuments but only one was finally built: the grave of theGreffulhe family, in a refined neo-Gothic style.[citation needed]
At the time of its opening, the cemetery was considered to be situated too far from the city and attracted few funerals. Moreover, manyRoman Catholics refused to have their graves in a place that had not been blessed by theChurch.[citation needed]
In 1804, the Père Lachaise contained only 13 graves. The next year there were 44 burials, with 49 during 1806, 62 during 1807 and 833 during 1812. Consequently, the administrators devised a marketing strategy to improve the cemetery's stature: in 1817, with great fanfare, they organized the transfer of the remains ofJean de La Fontaine andMolière to the new resting place. Then, in another great spectacle, the purported remains ofPierre Abélard andHéloïse d'Argenteuil were also transferred to the cemetery along with their monument's canopy made from fragments of theabbey ofNogent-sur-Seine. By tradition, lovers or lovelorn singles leave letters at the crypt in tribute to the couple or in hope of finding true love.[citation needed]
This strategy achieved its desired effect: people began clamoring to be buried among the famous citizens. Records show that the Père Lachaise contained more than 33,000 graves in 1830. Père Lachaise was expanded five times: in 1824, 1829, 1832, 1842 and 1850. At present, there are more than 1 million bodies buried there, and many more represented in thecolumbarium, which holds the remains of those who had requestedcremation.[6]
TheCommunards' Wall (Mur des Fédérés), located within the cemetery, was the site where 147 Communards were executed by the French Army during theSemaine sanglante, "The Bloody Week", following the final battles between the Army and theParis Commune.[7][8]
The Commune soldiers, who had been captured in earlier battles by the French Army, were taken to the prisons of Mazas and la Roquette, where they were quickly tried by military courts and sentenced to death. They were then taken to Pere Lachaise, where they were lined up against the wall and shot, and buried in common graves.[9]
The site is a traditional rallying point for members of the French political Left.[citation needed]
A funerary chapel was erected in 1823 by Étienne-Hippolyte Godde at the exact place of the ancient Jesuit house. This sameNeoclassical architect created the monumental entrance a few years later.
Crematorium and columbarium building
Acolumbarium and a crematorium of aByzantine Revival architecture were designed in 1894 byJean-Camille Formigé in one building. The roof consists of a large brick and sandstone dome, three small domes and two chimneys. In the 1920s, the main dome was decorated with stained glass windows by Carl Maumejean. The final columbarium is composed of four levels: two in the basement and two exterior levels, both can contain more than 40,800 cases.
The crematorium was the first built in France. The first cremation took place on 30 January 1889,[10] a little over a year after the law of 15 November 1887 proclaimed freedom of funerals and thus authorized cremations. Nonetheless, cremation remained uncommon until the end of the 20th century. With the work of anticlerical and free-thinkers (Charles-Ange Laisant,André Lorulot), the use of cremation became more popular after the overturning of the ban by the Catholic Church in 1963. From 49 cremations in 1889, there were about 5,000 cremations at the beginning of the 21st century. In 2012, cremation represented 45% of funerals in Paris.[11]
Inside the columbarium are the remains of numerous celebrities, including the directorMax Ophuls and the comedianPierre Dac. The box inscribed withMaria Callas' name is only acenotaph.
An 1804 law[12] put in place by Napoleon addressed the question of cemetery organization relating to religious beliefs. It was required that an entire cemetery be built, or at least a section of a large cemetery should be dedicated to a specific religion. Another law in 1881 repealed the former law but by that time at Père Lachaise a Jewish enclosure and a Muslim enclosure already existed.[citation needed]
The law of separation of church and state on 9 December 1905 had no impact on Père Lachaise because religious emblems were still allowed on private funeral monuments. The cemetery cross was removed in June 1883.[13]
In 1804, a law was passed which allowed the sharing of cemeteries between diverse religions. The Jewish enclosure in Père Lachaise opened on 18 February 1810 in the 7th division.[14] Enclosed by a wall, this part of the cemetery included a purification room and a pavilion for the caretaker.
From 1865 to 1887 the 87th division also served as the Jewish enclosure. After the revocation of segregation within cemeteries in 1881, the walls of the enclosure were destroyed, and the Jewish dead were buried in the 96th division.[14]
In 1856, a Muslim enclosure was opened in the 85th division – part of this section of the cemetery was newly acquired in the last extension in 1850. Work on the mosque started in 1855 based on the plans created by Marie-Gabriel Jolivet. The monument included a waiting room, alavatorium intended for the purification of Muslims, and a counter for religious effects.[14]
The Muslim enclosure opened on 1 January 1857, making it the first Muslim cemetery in France.[16] Between 1856 and 1870, there were only 44 burials – 6 perpetual concessions, 7 temporary and 31 free of charge. The enclosure was reduced multiple times and in 1871, an unused part was dedicated to the Jewish religion.
The law of 14 November 1881 made segregation in cemeteries illegal.[17] The fence of the enclosure was removed but the plant hedge was preserved. Despite the law, the mosque was conserved but theOttoman Empire, responsible for maintenance, lapsed in their responsibility. Plans for reconstruction were made, but during World War I, when the Ottomans became an ally to Germany and an enemy to France, those plans were cancelled. The mosque was destroyed in 1914 and a plan for reconstruction was abandoned in 1923 in lieu of the project to build theGrand Mosque of Paris.[18]
In 1899, theMonument aux Morts byAlbert Bartholomé was erected in Père Lachaise as a memorial to unidentified deceased Parisians. The monument holds a communal ossuary. In addition to the elaborate tombs, there are various monuments dedicate to individuals or groups of people including:
Monuments for foreign soldiers who died for France during World War II
Monuments in the memory of victims of concentration and extermination camps
Monuments in homage to victims of catastrophic aerial accidents
Monuments in homage to victims ofJune 1848 (the suppression of the Paris working class uprising)
Behind theAux Morts (To the Dead) monument sculpted byPaul-Albert Bartholomé lies anossuary of the bones of Parisians from cemeteries all over the city, a smaller kind of modern-daycatacombs. Although the monument is well known, it is not general knowledge that it is also an ossuary, and its doors usually remain closed and locked to the public. When it became overcrowded recently[when?], the bones were removed for cremation and returned to the ossuary after the incineration process. In the Père Lachaise ossuary, efforts are made to store bones and ashes in separate boxes.[19]
Map of the Père-Lachaise CemeteryGrave ofJean de La Fontaine, Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise is an operating cemetery and accepts new burials. However, the rules to be buried in a Paris cemetery are that people may be buried in one of these cemeteries if they die in the French capital city or if they lived there. Being buried in Père Lachaise is even more difficult nowadays as there is a waiting list and very few plots are available.[20] The grave sites at Père Lachaise range from a simple, unadorned headstone to towering monuments and even elaborate mini chapels dedicated to the memory of a well-known person or family. Many of the tombs are about the size and shape of atelephone booth, with just enough space for a mourner to step inside, kneel to say a prayer, and leave some flowers.[citation needed]
The cemetery manages to squeeze an increasing number of bodies into a finite and already crowded space. One way it does this is by combining the remains of multiple family members in the same grave. At Père Lachaise, it is not uncommon to reopen a grave after a body has decomposed and inter another coffin. Some familymausoleums or multi-family tombs contain dozens of bodies, often in several separate but contiguous graves. Shelves are usually installed to accommodate their remains.[citation needed]
During relatively recent times, the Père Lachaise has adopted a standard practice of issuing 30-year leases on gravesites, so that if a lease is not renewed by a family, the remains can beremoved, space made for a new grave, and the overall deterioration of the cemetery minimized. Abandoned remains are boxed, tagged and moved toAux Mortsossuary, still in the Père Lachaise cemetery.[21]
Plots can be bought in perpetuity or for 50, 30 or 10 years, the last being the least expensive option. Even for the case of mausoleums and chapels, coffins are usually below ground.[citation needed]
Although some sources incorrectly estimate the number of interred as 300,000 in Père Lachaise, according to the official website of the city of Paris, one million people have been buried there as of 2012.[6] Along with the stored remains in theAux Morts ossuary, the number of human remains exceeds 2–3 million.[citation needed]
Like other cemeteries around the world,[22] Père Lachaise has become a miniature biodiversity preserve.[23] A change in management practices, including a prohibition on the use ofpesticides and a sterilization program that reduced the cemetery's population offeral cats, set the stage for what is now described as a "rich ecosystem."[23] Flora now growing at the cemetery includescyclamen andorchids. The cemetery also hosts a population of foxes and 100 species of birds, including flycatchers andtawny owls.[23]
Père Lachaise is often referenced in French culture and has been included in various films, literary works, video games and songs. A number of English-language works also make reference to the cemetery.
1979:French Postcards – Laura visits Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, Isadora Duncan, and Édith Piaf burial sites.
1991:The Doors byOliver Stone – biographical film ofJim Morrison which includes various snapshots of the tombs of those buried in Père Lachaise, such asGeorges Bizet,Oscar Wilde,Marcel Proust. Like Morrison, a poet and singer, the tombs shown are all people of the arts, mainly music, literature and poetry.
2000:Relic Hunter – Season 1, Episode 22 "Memories of Montmartre" – A tiara known as the Heart of Europe, the relic being sought in the episode, is hidden in vault A317 in Père Lachaise.
2021:Emily in Paris – Season 2, Episode 3 "Bon Anniversaire!" – Luc takes Emily to the grave of Honore de Balzac to tell her a story.
1844:Le comte de Monte Cristo byAlexandre Dumas – M. de Villefort "...considered the cemetery of Père Lachaise alone worthy of receiving the mortal remains of a Parisian family..." and intended to bury his believed-deceased daughter Valentine there.
2004:The Enemy byLee Child – Jack and Joe Reacher's mother gets buried there after passing from cancer due being part of the French Resistance during WWII. She went by the name Beatrice.
2023:Monument to the Dead by Spanish author Victoria Sánchez is based on this cemetery. The author uses her social media presence, notably her TikTok account "bluebardot" to tell stories about its graves.
2015:The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt byCD Projekt – in the expansionBlood and Wine, a cemetery by the name "Mère-Lachaiselongue" is used to pay homage to the Père Lachaise cemetery. The Blood and Wine expansion is set in Toussaint, a French-inspired region.
2009:The Saboteur by former developerPandemic Studios features the Père Lachaise Cemetery on its depictions of Nazi occupied Paris. A couple of missions are set inside the cemetery itself.
^"Burial Grounds." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Ed. William A. Darity, Jr. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Detroit: Macmillan Reference U.S., 2008. 392–393. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web 27 September 2013.
^Etlin, Richard A. (1984). "Père Lachaise and the garden cemetery".The Journal of Garden History.4 (3):211–222.doi:10.1080/01445170.1984.10444096.
^"Passy Cemetery".fodors.com. Fodors.Archived from the original on 7 April 2019. Retrieved17 June 2015.
^"Commune of Paris, 1871".Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Archived from the original on 4 December 2018. Retrieved4 December 2018.
