Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited
necropolis in the world.
Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the arts, including
Miguel Ángel Asturias,
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly ; ; born Honoré Balzac; 20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence ''La Comédie humaine'', which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is ...
,
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including by Alexandre Dumas fils, ...
,
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', w ...
,
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period who wrote primarily for Piano solo, solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown ...
,
Colette,
George Enescu,
Max Ernst
Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...
,
Olivia de Havilland
Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland (; July 1, 1916July 26, 2020) was a British and American actress. The major works of her cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading actresses of her tim ...
,
Marcel Marceau,
Georges Méliès
Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès ( , ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French magic (illusion), magician, toymaker, actor, and filmmaker. He led many technical and narrative developments in the early days of film, cinema, primarily in th ...
,
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (; ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor of the École de Paris who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern art, modern style characterized by a surre ...
,
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...
,
Édith Piaf,
Camille Pissarro,
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...
,
Gertrude Stein,
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...
,
Richard Wright,
Sadegh Hedayat,
Jim Morrison, and
Michel Petrucciani. Many famous philosophers, scientists, and historical figures are buried there as well, including
Peter Abelard,
Pierre Bourdieu
Pierre Bourdieu (, ; ; ; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influ ...
,
Jean-François Champollion,
Auguste Comte
Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte (; ; 19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857) was a French philosopher, mathematician and writer who formulated the doctrine of positivism. He is often regarded as the first philosopher of science in the ...
,
Georges Cuvier
Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, baron Cuvier (23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier (; ), was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuv ...
,
Joseph Fourier
Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier (; ; 21 March 1768 – 16 May 1830) was a French mathematician and physicist born in Auxerre, Burgundy and best known for initiating the investigation of Fourier series, which eventually developed into Fourier analys ...
,
Manuel Godoy,
Georges-Eugène Haussmann,
Jean-François Lyotard,
Nestor Makhno,
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-Ponty. ( ; ; 14 March 1908 – 3 May 1961) was a French phenomenological philosopher, strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. The constitution of meaning in human experience was his main interes ...
,
Jean Moulin,
Henri de Saint-Simon,
Jean-Baptiste Say
Jean-Baptiste () is a male French name, originating with Saint John the Baptist, and sometimes shortened to Baptiste. The name may refer to any of the following:
Persons
* Charles XIV John of Sweden, born Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, was K ...
,
Madho Rao Scindia I,
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (3 May 174820 June 1836), usually known as the Abbé Sieyès (; ), was a French Catholic priest, ''abbé'', and political writer who was a leading political theorist of the French Revolution (1789–1799); he also held off ...
,
J. R. D. Tata,
Adolphe Thiers
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers ( ; ; 15 April 17973 September 1877) was a French statesman and historian who served as President of France from 1871 to 1873. He was the second elected president and the first of the Third French Republic.
Thi ...
, and
Rafael Trujillo
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina ( ; ; 24 October 1891 – 30 May 1961), nicknamed ''El Jefe'' (; "the boss"), was a Dominican military officer and dictator who ruled the Dominican Republic from August 1930 until Rafael Trujillo#Assassination, ...
.
The Père Lachaise is located in the
20th arrondissement and was the first
garden cemetery, as well as the first municipal cemetery in Paris. It is also the site of three
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
memorials. The cemetery is located on the Boulevard de Ménilmontant. The
Paris Métro
The Paris Métro (, , or , ), short for Métropolitain (), is a rapid transit system serving the Paris metropolitan area in France. A symbol of the city, it is known for its density within the capital's territorial limits, uniform architectur ...
station
Philippe Auguste on
Line 2 is next to the main entrance, while the station
Père Lachaise, on both
Line 2 and
Line 3, is away near a side entrance.
History and description
Origin
The cemetery of Père Lachaise opened in 1804 and takes its name from the confessor to
Louis XIV
LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...
,
Père François de la Chaise (1624–1709), who lived in the
Jesuit
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
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 the
Condé and
Turenne during
the Fronde, was bought by the city in 1804. Established as a cemetery by
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
during that year, plans were laid out by
Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart
Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart (; 15 February 1739 – 6 June 1813) was a prominent French architect, born in Paris.
Biography
In 1767, Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart married Anne Louise Degrémont (1744–1829). The couple became friends ...
; the property was later extended. Napoleon, who had been proclaimed Emperor by the Senate three days earlier, had declared during the Consulate that "Every citizen has the right to be buried regardless of race or religion".
After the closing of the
Holy 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, and
Montparnasse Cemetery in the south. Near the middle of the city is
Passy Cemetery.
The French officials approved the transformation of 17 hectares of Mont-Louis into the Cemetery of the East in 1803 and the work was given to neoclassical architect
Alexandre-Theodore Brongniart. He used
English-style gardens as inspiration, 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 the
Greffulhe family, in a refined neo-Gothic style.

At the time of its opening, the cemetery was considered to be situated too far from the city and attracted few funerals. Moreover, many
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
s refused to have their graves in a place that had not been blessed by the
Church. 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 of
Jean de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine (, ; ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French Fable, fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''La Fontaine's Fables, Fables'', which provided a model for subs ...
and
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...
to the new resting place. Then, in another great spectacle, the purported remains of
Pierre Abélard and
Héloïse d'Argenteuil were also transferred to the cemetery along with their monument's canopy made from fragments of the
abbey
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...
of
Nogent-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.
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 the
columbarium
A columbarium (; pl. columbaria), also called a cinerarium, is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns holding cremated remains of the dead. The term comes from the Latin ''columba'' (dove) and originally solel ...
, which holds the remains of those who had requested
cremation
Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a corpse through Combustion, burning.
Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India, Nepal, and ...
.
The
Communards' Wall (''Mur des Fédérés''), located within the cemetery, was the site where 147 Communards were executed by the French Army during the
Semaine sanglante
The ''Semaine sanglante'' ("") was a weeklong battle in Paris from 21 to 28 May 1871, during which the French Army recaptured the city from the Paris Commune. This was the final battle of the Paris Commune.
Following the Treaty of Frankfurt ...
, "The Bloody Week", following the final battles between the Army and the
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...
. The Commune soldiers 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. The site is a traditional rallying point for members of the French political Left.
Adolphe Thiers
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers ( ; ; 15 April 17973 September 1877) was a French statesman and historian who served as President of France from 1871 to 1873. He was the second elected president and the first of the Third French Republic.
Thi ...
, the second elected President of France, and the first President of the
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic (, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940, after the Fall of France durin ...
, who led the suppression of the Commune, is also interred in the cemetery.
Crematorium and columbarium
A funerary chapel was erected in 1823 by Étienne-Hippolyte Godde at the exact place of the ancient Jesuit house. This same
Neoclassical architect created the monumental entrance a few years later.

A
columbarium
A columbarium (; pl. columbaria), also called a cinerarium, is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns holding cremated remains of the dead. The term comes from the Latin ''columba'' (dove) and originally solel ...
and a crematorium of a
Byzantine Revival architecture were designed in 1894 by
Jean-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, 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 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 represents 45% of funerals in Paris.
Inside the columbarium rest the remains of numerous celebrities including the director
Max Ophuls and the comedian
Pierre Dac. The box inscribed with
Maria Callas' name is only a
cenotaph.
Religion
An 1804 law 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.
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.
Chapel
Where the former house of
Père Lachaise stood,
Alexandre-Theodore Brongniart envisioned an outstanding pyramid to be used by all Christian denominations. It was never constructed but the Parisian architect
Etienne Hippolyte Godde began building a chapel in 1820. It was sanctified by the Catholic Church in 1834 and is supported by the .
Jewish enclosure
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.
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.
Some noteworthy individuals buried in the 19th century include the actress
Rachel Felix, the first French rabbi,
David Sintzheim, and
Robles, Singer and Fould Rothschild.
Muslim enclosure
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, a
lavatorium intended for the purification of Muslims, and a counter for religious effects.
The Muslim enclosure opened on 1 January 1857, making it the first Muslim cemetery in France. 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. The fence of the enclosure was removed but the plant hedge was preserved. Despite the law, the mosque was conserved but the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
, 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 the
Grand Mosque of Paris.
Monuments
In 1899, the
Monument aux Morts by
Albert 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 of
June 1848 (the suppression of the Paris working class uprising)
* Monument for the
genocide in Rwanda
* Monument for the 228 people that died aboard
Air France Flight 447
Air France Flight 447 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Rio de Janeiro/Galeão International Airport, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France. On 1 June 2009, inconsistent airspeed indications and mi ...
Aux Morts ossuary
Behind the ''Aux Morts'' (To the Dead) monument sculpted by
Paul-Albert Bartholomé lies an
ossuary
An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years th ...
of the bones of Parisians from cemeteries all over the city, a smaller kind of modern-day
catacombs
Catacombs are man-made underground passages primarily used for religious purposes, particularly for burial. Any chamber used as a burial place is considered a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman Empire.
Etym ...
. 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, 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.
Cemetery today
Père Lachaise is an operating cemetery and accept 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. 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 a
telephone booth, with just enough space for a mourner to step inside, kneel to say a prayer, and leave some flowers.
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 family
mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type o ...
s or multi-family tombs contain dozens of bodies, often in several separate but contiguous graves. Shelves are usually installed to accommodate their remains.
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 be
removed, space made for a new grave, and the overall deterioration of the cemetery minimized. Abandoned remains are boxed, tagged and moved to ''Aux Morts''
ossuary
An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years th ...
, still in the Père Lachaise cemetery.
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.
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.
Along with the stored remains in the ''Aux Morts'' ossuary, the number of human remains exceeds 2–3 million.
Habitat
Like other cemeteries around the world, Père Lachaise has become a miniature biodiversity preserve.
A change in management practices, including a prohibition on the use of
pesticide
Pesticides are substances that are used to control pests. They include herbicides, insecticides, nematicides, fungicides, and many others (see table). The most common of these are herbicides, which account for approximately 50% of all p ...
s and a sterilization program that reduced the cemetery's population of
feral cat
A feral cat or a stray cat is an unowned domestic cat (''Felis catus'') that lives outdoors and avoids human contact; it does not allow itself to be handled or touched, and usually remains hidden from humans. Feral cats may breed over dozens ...
s, set the stage for what is now described as a "rich ecosystem."
Flora now growing at the cemetery includes
cyclamen and
orchid
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...
s. The cemetery also hosts a population of foxes and 100 species of birds, including flycatchers and
tawny owl
The tawny owl (''Strix aluco''), also called the brown owl, is a stocky, medium-sized owl in the family Strigidae. It is commonly found in woodlands across Europe, as well as western Siberia, and has seven recognized subspecies. The tawny owl' ...
s.
In popular culture
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.
Films
* 1960: ''
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...
'' – 1960 film. The ending credits roll over a shot of the
poet's tomb
A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called '' immurement'', alth ...
.
* 1979: ''
French Postcards'' – Laura visits Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, Isadora Duncan, and Édith Piaf burial sites.
* 1991: ''
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, comprising vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most influential and controversial rock acts ...
'' by
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone (born ) is an American filmmaker. Stone is an acclaimed director, tackling subjects ranging from the Vietnam War and American politics to musical film, musical Biographical film, biopics and Crime film, crime dramas. He has ...
– biographical film of
Jim Morrison which includes various snapshots of the tombs of those buried in Père Lachaise, such as
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', w ...
,
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...
,
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...
. Like Morrison, a poet and singer, the tombs shown are all people of the arts, mainly music, literature and poetry.
* 2001: ''
Amélie'' by
Jean-Pierre Jeunet – images of the burial of
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including by Alexandre Dumas fils, ...
with music from
Samuel Barber
Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, conductor (music), conductor, baritone, and music educator, and one of the most celebrated composers of the mid-20th century. Principally influenced ...
* 2006: ''
Paris, I Love You'' by
Wes Craven – segment about the 20th arrondissement, a couple is strolling through the cemetery where the woman is trying to find
Oscar Wilde's tomb
* 2007: ''
Two Days in Paris'' by
Julie Delpy – scene where Marion is leaning on
Jim Morrison's tomb
* 2009: ''Oscar and Jim'' short film set entirely in the cemetery
* 2012: ''
Holy Motors'' by
Leos Carax
Alex Christophe Dupont (born 1960), best known as Leos Carax (), is a French film director, critic and writer. Carax is noted for his poetic style and his tortured depictions of love. His first major work was ''Boy Meets Girl (1984 film), Boy Me ...
– Monsieur Merde kidnaps Kay M, a model, from a photo shoot in the cemetery
* 2016: ''
Elle
Elle may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Elle (magazine), ''Elle'' (magazine), a fashion publication
** Elle Style Awards
* Elle (India), ''Elle'' (India), the Indian edition
* Elle (film), ''Elle'' (film), a 2016 French film
* ''Elle: ...
'' by
Paul Verhoeven – the final scene takes place at the
columbarium
A columbarium (; pl. columbaria), also called a cinerarium, is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns holding cremated remains of the dead. The term comes from the Latin ''columba'' (dove) and originally solel ...
of the cemetery where Michele is seen in front of her parents' urn
* 2018: ''
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald'' by
David Yates
David Yates (born 8 October 1963) is an English filmmaker, who has directed feature films, short films, and television productions. He is best known for directing the final four films in the Harry Potter (film series), ''Harry Potter'' series ...
– Grindelwald convenes his followers at Père Lachaise towards the end of the film.
* 2020: ''
Dil Bechara'' – Kizie Basu proposes Manny before returning to India.
Television
* 2000: ''
Relic Hunter
''Relic Hunter'' is a Canadian adventure television series, starring Tia Carrere and Christien Anholt.
It centres on Sydney Fox, a professor who is also a globe-trotting "relic hunter" who looks for ancient artifacts to return to museums and ...
'' – 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.
* 2022: ''
Family Guy
''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series premiered on January 31, 1999, following Super Bowl XXXIII, with the rest of the first season airing from April 11, 1999. Th ...
'' –
Season 21, Episode 7 "The Stewaway" –
Stewie goes to look for the grave of
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...
after getting lost in Paris at night.
* 2023: ''
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon'' – Season 1, episode 3 –
Daryl Dixon traverses through the cemetery and points out Jim Morrison's grave.
Literature
* 1833: ''
Ferragus'' by
Balzac – description of cemetery
* 1834: ''
Le Père Goriot'' by
Balzac – the Père Goriot is buried in Père Lachaise
* 1842: , a poem by
Lydia Huntley Sigourney recording her impressions of the cemetery on her visit to Europe in 1840.
* 1844: ''
Le comte de Monte Cristo'' by
Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas (born Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas , was a French novelist and playwright.
His works have been translated into many languages and he is one of the mos ...
– 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.
* 1862: ''
Les Misérables'' by
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician.
His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...
–
Jean Valjean is buried in Père Lachaise
* 1869: ''
Sentimental Education'' by
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...
– description of cemetery
* 1948: The Old Beauty by Willa Cather – Gabrielle de Coucy is buried in Père Lachaise
* 2004: ''
The Enemy'' by
Lee Child
James Dover Grant (born 29 October 1954), primarily known by his pen name Lee Child, is a British author who writes Thriller (genre), thriller novels, and is best known for his ''Jack Reacher (book series), Jack Reacher'' novel series. The boo ...
– 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.
Video games
* 2015: ''
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt'' by
CD Projekt – in the expansion ''
Blood 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 developer
Pandemic Studios features the Père Lachaise Cemetery on its depictions of Nazi occupied Paris. A couple of missions are set inside the cemetery itself.
Art works
* 2020
Mon Amiby
David Eustace – Photographic portfolio created at Père Lachaise Cemetery with artist
Douglas Gordon. Exhibited a
The Signet Libraryin 2023.
See also
*
List of burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
*
List of burial places of classical musicians
*
List of tourist attractions in Paris
References
Bibliography
*
* Gallot, B. (2022), ''La vie d'un cimetière'' ("The Secret Life of a Cemetery"), Les Arènes.
External links
Père Lachaise Cemetery– virtual tour in French and English
*
StereograveyartPhotographic gallery in 3-D
Père Lachaise CemeteryThe Parisian Guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pere Lachaise Cemetery
1804 establishments in France
Buildings and structures completed in 1804
Buildings and structures in the 20th arrondissement of Paris
Cemeteries established in the 1800s
Cemeteries in Paris
Jewish cemeteries in France
Necropoleis
Rural cemeteries
Tourist attractions in Paris