The Père-Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery within the city limits of Paris and one of the most famous in the world.

Located in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, it covers 43 hectares and contains 70,000 graves, including those of many famous people. It welcomes more than three and a half million visitors each year, making it the most visited cemetery in the world.

 

The cemetery owes its name to Father François d'Aix de La Chaise, known as Père La Chaise, confessor to King Louis XIV of France, who had a small château built on Mont-Louis and transformed the estate into a place of spiritual retreat.

Following the closure of the Cemetery of the Innocents in 1780, which led to the creation of the Catacombs of Paris, in accordance with the law prohibiting cemeteries within the city for sanitary reasons, Paris began to run out of burial spaces.

Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul, decided to create new cemeteries outside the city limits at the time. The cemeteries of Montmartre, Montparnasse, and Passy were subsequently established.

 

In 1803, the city of Paris acquired the Père-Lachaise estate. Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, the architect assigned to the project, designed the cemetery as an English-style garden, landscaped with trees and varied terrain, and inaugurated it on May 21, 1804.

Parisians were initially reluctant to be buried there; the cemetery was considered too far away and too close to working-class and impoverished neighborhoods.

 

But in 1817, a bold public relations initiative was launched: the transfer of the remains of iconic figures, such as Molière and Jean de La Fontaine, and the medieval couple, Héloïse and Abélard, to this secluded location.

The success was resounding, making Père-Lachaise not only a popular final resting place, but also a destination for walks and contemplation alongside the illustrious deceased.

 

Over time, the Père-Lachaise Cemetery underwent numerous expansions, now covering 43 hectares and containing approximately 70,000 graves.

It is also a unique haven for biodiversity, with 4,000 trees of 80 different species, providing habitat for some 40 bird species. Lizards, cats, bats, martens, hedgehogs, red squirrels, 264 beetle species, around 100 butterfly species, and even a swarm of bees were found in the bronze head of the Casimir Perier statue. In 2020, a family of foxes also took up residence in the cemetery.

 

The Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris is the burial place of many personalities such as Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Frédéric Chopin, Edith Piaf, Marcel Proust, Honoré de Balzac, Molière, Jean de la Fontaine, George Bizet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred de Musset, Guillaume Apollinaire, Eugène Delacroix, Colette, or even Yves Montand and Jean-Paul Belmondo.

 

 

Enjoy your stay at the Hotel Jardin Le Bréa by strolling through the paths of the world's most famous cemetery, in search of the graves of famous people, or by admiring the fauna and flora that flourish in the tranquility of the place.

 

 

How to get to Père-Lachaise Cemetery from the Hôtel Jardin Le Bréa?

Père-Lachaise Cemetery - 28 ter, boulevard de Ménilmontant (opposite rue de la Roquette) 75020 Paris

- From the Hotel Jardin Le Bréa, take metro line 4 from Vavin station (1-minute walk), towards Porte de Clignancourt, get off at Réaumur-Sébastopol station, then take metro line 3, towards Gallieni, get off at Père-Lachaise station.

The total journey time from our hotel is 30 minutes.

 

 

Practical Information

https://pere-lachaise.com/pere-lachaise-cemetery/