Cimetière du Père-Lachaise

About Cimetière du Père-Lachaise

Cimetière du Père-Lachaise opened in 1804 and is the largest cemetery within the city limits of Paris, covering a hillside in the 20th arrondissement with cobbled lanes, old chestnut trees, and thousands of tombs packed close together. It was laid out as a garden cemetery at a time when burials inside the city had been banned on health grounds, and it was initially slow to attract the wealthy. That changed once the remains of a few famous names were reburied here, after which being buried at Cimetière du Père-Lachaise became a mark of status. Today it holds roughly a million bodies across its history, and the layout still feels more like a walled park than a graveyard.

The draw for most visitors is who is buried here. Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Frederic Chopin, Edith Piaf, Marcel Proust, Gertrude Stein, and the medieval lovers Abelard and Heloise all have graves on the grounds, alongside painters, composers, and figures from French history. Morrison's grave is one of the most visited and is usually fenced off because of crowds, while Wilde's tomb is now protected by a glass barrier after years of lipstick kisses damaged the stone. The cemetery is also a working memorial to history, with monuments to the Paris Commune, the Resistance, and victims of the Nazi concentration camps.

The grounds are open to the public and general entry is free, though the terrain is uneven and the cobbled slopes can be hard going, so comfortable shoes matter more here than at most sights. Maps are available at the entrances and are genuinely useful, since the numbered divisions are large and specific graves are easy to miss. A guided walk helps if you want the stories behind particular tombs rather than just finding them. It's worth checking current opening hours before you go, as they shift slightly by season and the gates close earlier in winter.