Père Lachaise Cemetery

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If you’ve lived all your life in a modern American city, you probably think of cemeteries as being large flat expanses of green grass, with tiny, overpriced bronze plaques set below the level of the grass to mark individual graves. You might also believe that truly spooky cemeteries—with big tombstones overgrown with ivy and moss, creepy stone staircases with rusty iron railings, thick overhanging trees, deep shadows, and worn, barely legible inscriptions on ancient gravestones—exist only in old Gothic horror films. Well, such places are not just Hollywood inventions, and the Père Lachaise /pɛʁ laʃɛz/ cemetery in eastern Paris is the superlative proof.

This world-famous cemetery, home to many celebrated dead people, has all the characteristics that a good cemetery should have, including all those mentioned above. It is a fascinating place to visit. The list of famous people buried here is very long, and includes Colette, Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde, Simone Signoret and Yves Montand, and many, many others. Mortuary agencies around the area of the cemetery sell little maps that direct you to the graves of the rich and famous on the vast grounds of the cemetery. Even if you aren’t interested in the residents of the cemetery, however, just the elaborate tombs, graves, and burial vaults are fascinating to visit and examine. It can take all day to see the entire cemetery.

The cemetery was first opened in 1803 by the City of Paris, to which it belongs (the official name of the cemetery is simply the Cimetière de l’Est, or Eastern Cemetery). It rapidly became the place to be buried, and it retains its prestige and reputation to this day.

In recent years, one of the claims to fame of this cemetery has been that it is the final resting ground for rock star Jim Morrison, former member of the Doors. Morrison died in Paris in 1971 and was buried at Père Lachaise. His grave attracts more fans than any other, and since many of his fans seem to be prone to vanadalism and misbehavior, the grave is watched over by two police officers at all times. Morrison would be pushing sixty today, and most of his fans seem to have been born long after he died, so I’m not sure what makes his grave so popular. In any case, you won’t find a picture of the grave here—it is quite nondescript today, after some of his fans stole the original headstone, which included a bust of Morrison—and there are plenty of pictures of it elsewhere on the Web.

The picture that I have provided of the cemetery, above, is only one of many that I have. Unfortunately, there is no convenient vantage point in the cemetery from which to photograph an overall view; and this view seemed to be among the least cluttered of my photographs. The cemetery is quite beautiful and peaceful in person, but it does look a bit busy in a photo. I can assure you that it’s a very interesting place to visit, in any case.

I have a video of this cemetery also, if you'd like to watch it.

Photographed on October 17, 2000.