Père Lachaise Cemetery

Established in 1804 by Napoleon I, Emperor of France, the Père Lachaise cemetery was the first garden cemetery and first municipal cemetery. Napoleon declared that "Every citizen has the right to be buried here regardless of race or religion." The largest cemetery in the city of Paris, it holds over one million interments in its 110 acres. 

When it was first established, the cemetery was actually east of the city. People didn't want to bury their loved ones so far from home, so it was not popular. Space was running-out inside the older Parisian cemeteries, so the planners decided that it would encourage people to choose Père Lachaise if they started burying famous people here. The first two celebrities were transferred here from their original resting places: Poets/Writers/Playwrights Jean de La Fontaine and Moliere. It is all about the marketing -- they knew that even back in 1804!

Above and below are photos of one very famous tomb in the cemetery. It is the tomb of an abbot and a nun who had fallen in love. When their relationship was discovered, they were sent far apart (and he was castrated!). In death, they were reunited here.

Many of the tombs have chapels built on top of them, often decorated with stained glass. The people are buried (stacked) below, and family members can comeand pray in the chapel.

Jim Morrison is buried here. The only requirement for burial in Père Lachaise is that you must have died in France. There is a barricade around the nearby graves, to discourage vandals. It wasn't enough for people to leave flowers (and alcohol, condoms, heroine needles) on Morrison's grave -- many wrote graffiti on the tombs nearby.

Oscar Wilde is buried here, too. His tomb also has a barricade, as so many women (and maybe some men, too) kissed his tombstone that it was ruining the stone.

Famous French singer, Edith Piaf, is here, as well as Chopin. . .

. . . and painter, Gericault, whose famous work "Raft of the Medusa" is depicted right on his tombstone.

There are also many tombs dedicated to the victims of the Nazis in WWII. Some are for those who died in specific camps, like Auschwitz, Ravensbruck and Dachau, some for the French Resistance fighters.

"Under this stone lies a bit of the ashes of the seven million French martyrs asassinated by the Nazis in the camp Neuengamme. They died so that we could live free. Their families and surviving comrades have erected this monument in their memory. 8 Novermber, 1949" (apologies if I got any of that wrong)