Famous Burials in Paris Cemeteries
Cimetière du Père Lachaise, Montmartre et Montparnasse
Dec 9, 2008
Paris is known as a city of culture that has inspired countless writers and artists over the years, and many notable names are buried in these grounds, explaining the appeal it holds for many sightseers who wish to visit their resting places.
Cimetière du Père Lachaise
Founded in 1804 and covering 48 hectares, Père Lachaise is the most popular cemetery in Paris attracting a reported 1.5 million visitors each year. The cemetery is still in use, with tombs holding whole families, and still being added to. Each estate is responsible for the maintenance of their tombs, with some being kept beautiful and in impeccable condition, whilst others fall apart.
The cemetery gives 30 year leases on graves, so if an estate does not renew the lease, the grave can be removed and a new one put in its place, to prevent the entire cemetery falling into a state of disrepair. The cemetery also holds the Communards’ Wall where 147 combatants of the Paris Commune were shot at and buried where they fell.
Many visitors to the cemetery come to see the grave of Jim Morrison, frontman of the Doors who died in 1971. His grave has regularly been defaced with graffiti. In 1973 the grave’s shield was stolen, which was replaced by a bust of Morrison that was sculpted by Mladen Mikulin in 1981 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Morrison’s death. The bust was then stolen in 1988. Nowadays a security guard is usually on site as the behaviour of Morrison’s fans has upset the families of those buried nearby, due to the considerable damage caused and reports of fans drinking, taking drugs and having sex on his grave. Other tombs have been defaced with arrows pointing in the direction towards his grave.
Other notable burials include writers Oscar Wilde and Marcel Proust, composer Chopin and singer Edith Piaf. The website has an interactive map.
Cimetière de Montmartre
Montmartre is in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, and its cemetery is below street level in an old quarry. It is home to physicist Jean Foucault, writer Stendhal, film-maker François Truffaut and many others. Writer Emile Zola was buried here, however in 1908 he was removed to the Pantheon where he shares a crypt with Victor Hugo. His tomb remains at Montmartre.
Cimetière du Montparnasse
Opened in 1824, Montparnasse cemetery is the third largest in Paris after Père Lachaise and Montmartre. It was originally named ‘Le Cimetière du Sud’; the cemetery of the South. As with the previous two, the grounds hold many culturally significant names such as poet Charles Baudelaire, philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, singer Serge Gainsbourg, photographer Man Ray and Irish author Samuel Beckett.
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