The Pere Lachaise cemetery is located in the 20th arrondissement of Paris. The nearest metro to the main entrance is the Philippe-Auguste and the Pere Lachaise metro stop is nearby.
Explore the Pere Lachaise Cemetery
France This Way review: The Pere-Lachaise cemetery is beautiful and very peaceful and has lots of interesting and beautiful tombs and monuments to discover.
The Pere Lachaise cemetery is the largest and most famous cemetery in Paris. It covers 44 hectares, has 15 kilometers of paths and receives more than 3 million visitors each year.
In 1780 the Holy Innocents cemetery of Paris was closed as it was too full and the other graveyards were nearly full too.
Several new cemeteries took over. These were the Montmarte cemetery in the north, Pere Lachaise in the east and Montparnasse cemetery in the south.
The Pere Lachaise cemetery was designed by A T Brongniart in 1804. It has 70,000 graves and various monuments including monuments to the dead at each of the WW2 concentration camps.
It might seem strange to visit a cemetery but it is the largest green space in Paris and many come for the tranquility and find a quiet spot to read a book or enjoy the peace.
Many more come to visit the tombs as many of the most famous personalities of France and elsewhere are buried here.
You can download a map of the cemetery with the positions of well known people marked on it and often there are people giving out maps at the main entrance. These are free and very informative.
There are famous writers such as Balzac, Colette, and Oscar Wilde; composers such as Bizet, Chopin and Rossini; singers including Jim Morrison and Edith Piaf, actors and actresses including Annie Girardot and painters including Delacroix, Pissarro and Max Ernst.
The main gate of the cemetery leads on to the Avenue Principale and straight ahead is the Monument aux Morts which was built as a memorial to deceased unidentified Parisians.
Just beyond this is the Chapelle of the East which was built on the site of the Jesuit castle that was originally on this site. The chapelle is the only chapel intended for Catholic worship in the cemetery.
Avenues lined with tombs and graves surround the main avenue and divide the site into numbered plots to help to navigate the site.
Continuing straight on beyond the chapelle after crossing the Avenue Transversale 1 you will approach the Crematorium and Columbarium. These beautiful buildings have been built in neo-Byzantine style .
The crematorium was the first to be built in France.
The crematorium can hold more than 80,000 cases and like the graves you can read the names of those whose remains are kept here. One of the cases is that of Maria Callas though this is empty as she had her ashes scattered in the sea.
Behind the Cramatorium are the Monuments to the dead of different countries who fought beside France in the First and Second World Wars
Walking along the Avenue Circulaire from here in the far corner are a series of very moving monuments dedicated to the victims of the various concentration camps of WW2.
Each concentration camp has its own memorial to the deportees. These include Auschwitz, Dachau and Bergen-Belsen.
Also here is the 'Communards Wall', the 'Mur des Fédérés'. This is the stretch of wall where 147 Communards were lined up and shot following the fall of the Paris Commune. This was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris for two months in 1871.
The whole cemetery is beautiful with lots of mature trees and it is home to 140 wild animal species including foxes, owls and hedgehogs and lots of cats!
Many of the tombs are also very beautiful and some in particular deserver a mention.
The tomb of Theodore Gericault is decorated with a bas-relief of his famous painting, 'The Raft of the Medusa'.
The tomb of Honoré de Balzac is decorated with a large bronze bust of Balzac.
The tomb of Oscar Wilde has had to be protected by a plexiglass screen to prevent fans removing parts of the sculpture and covering the tomb with lipstick kisses.
The most visited tomb is that of Jim Morrison, the American singer and poet who died in Paris, in 1971, of an overdose at the age of 27.
The tomb of Edith Piaf is another popular one and is always covered with flowers. Apparently at least three of her lovers are in nearby tombs.
One interesting tomb is that of Fernand Arbelot which has a statue of him lying down on his tomb holding the head of his beloved wife. Apparently his one desire in death was to look upon the face of his wife.
Burials and cremations still take place at the Pere-Lachaise cemetery but there is a waiting list and generally you have to have lived and died in Paris to be allowed a plot.
Recently plots are leased for 30 or so years and after that time if the lease is not renewed bones are taken to the ossuary which is behind the Monument aux Morts.
The cemetery is open every day and entry if free. The precise opening hours vary with the time of year but tend to be 08.00 to 17.30 as a minimum.
Attractions nearby
The Pere-Lachaise cemetery is not far from the Parc des Buttes Chaumont which is another lovely relaxing area to discover.
You can find more travel ideas in the Paris region guide.
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