Père Lachaise Cemetery: Famous Graves & Architectural Guide

Why Père Lachaise Cemetery is famous

Père Lachaise is the largest cemetery in Paris. It is also the most visited cemetery in the world. About 3.5 million people come every year. The cemetery opened in 1804 on land bought by the City of Paris. It is named for Père François de la Chaise, the confessor of King Louis XIV. The Chaise family once owned the land. Napoleon ordered the cemetery built to fix overcrowded inner Paris churchyards. Père Lachaise then became the model for modern garden cemeteries around the world.

The cemetery’s fame for famous burials was planned. When it opened, Parisians did not want to use a cemetery so far outside the city. To bring in burials, the city moved the remains of Molière, La Fontaine, and the medieval lovers Héloïse and Abélard to the new grounds between 1804 and 1817. The plan worked. Within one generation, Père Lachaise was the top burial place in Paris.

Today the cemetery holds more than one million burials. It is the most architecturally varied cemetery in Europe. The grounds are split into 97 numbered divisions. Most of the famous graves sit in the older sections (Divisions 1 through 49) that were laid out in the early 1800s.

Where is Père Lachaise Cemetery?

Père Lachaise is at 16 Rue du Repos in the 20th arrondissement of eastern Paris. The main entrance is on Boulevard de Ménilmontant. You can reach the cemetery by Paris Métro Lines 2 and 3. Both stop at Père Lachaise station. The conservation office near the main entrance hands out free maps. Most visitors come to find the famous graves.

Architectural and landscape character

Père Lachaise stands out for the density and variety of its memorial architecture. Most cemeteries have single upright stones with grass between them. Père Lachaise is packed with family chapels. These are small stone or marble buildings, usually 6 to 10 feet tall, that hold the remains of a whole family. The chapels line narrow cobbled paths. The whole place feels like a small city of the dead.

The architecture covers the full 19th century and early 20th century. Neoclassical chapels with Greek pediments and Corinthian columns fill the oldest sections. Gothic Revival monuments with pointed arches and pinnacles appear from the 1830s on. Art Nouveau and Art Deco memorials from the 1890s through the 1930s brought new sculpted forms. Jacob Epstein’s winged figure for Oscar Wilde and Constantin Brâncuși’s “The Kiss” are key examples. Modern memorials are rare. New plots are hard to come by today.

• Jim Morrison (1943 to 1971). Singer, The Doors. Plain flat marker, Division 6. The most visited modern grave in the cemetery.
• Oscar Wilde (1854 to 1900). Writer. Jacob Epstein designed Art Deco winged figure, Division 89.
• Frédéric Chopin (1810 to 1849). Composer. Marble bust over a weeping muse, Division 11.
• Édith Piaf (1915 to 1963). Singer. Black granite family vault, Division 97.
• Marcel Proust (1871 to 1922). Novelist. Black granite slab, Division 85.
• Sarah Bernhardt (1844 to 1923). Actress. Granite tomb with bronze lettering, Division 44.

Memorial design highlights at Père Lachaise

Oscar Wilde’s monument is one of the most studied works of funeral sculpture from the 20th century. Jacob Epstein sculpted it between 1909 and 1912. The winged figure stands over three metres tall. It mixes Art Deco shapes with old Egyptian and Assyrian influences. The monument was controversial when it was unveiled. The anatomical detail upset the cemetery, and they covered the figure with a tarp until a small brass plate was added. Since 2011, a glass barrier has surrounded the tomb. The barrier protects it from the lipstick kisses left by visitors over the years.

Jim Morrison’s grave is the most visited modern memorial in any cemetery in the world. His family installed the current flat granite slab in 1990. The new slab replaced an earlier bust that fans had damaged many times. Morrison’s father added the Greek inscription “ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ,” which means “true to his own spirit.”

The family chapels in Divisions 1 through 49 are one of the most complete records of 19th century European funerary architecture anywhere. You can walk through the older sections and follow the styles as they shift from neoclassical to Gothic Revival to Art Nouveau.

Visiting Père Lachaise Cemetery

Père Lachaise is open every day, free of charge. Summer hours are 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Winter hours are 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM. Weekend and holiday hours are slightly different. Free maps that show the famous graves are available at the conservation office near the main entrance. Visitors should expect uneven cobbled paths. The hilly land makes a full visit physically demanding.

Where is Père Lachaise Cemetery?
Père Lachaise Cemetery is at 16 Rue du Repos in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, France. You can reach it on Métro Lines 2 and 3 at Père Lachaise station.

Who is buried at Père Lachaise?
Famous graves at Père Lachaise include Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Frédéric Chopin, Édith Piaf, Marcel Proust, Sarah Bernhardt, Honoré de Balzac, Molière, Eugène Delacroix, Camille Pissarro, and Gertrude Stein. The cemetery has held more than one million burials since 1804.

Is Père Lachaise open to the public?
Yes. The cemetery is open every day, free of charge. Summer hours are 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Winter hours are 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM.

Why is Père Lachaise the most visited cemetery in the world?
Père Lachaise gets about 3.5 million visitors a year. The reasons are the high number of famous graves on 110 acres, the wide range of memorial architecture, and the cemetery’s central location in Paris.