Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery is one of the narrated stops on the self-guided Paris audio walking tour in Gingerguide. Plan about ~120 min here. Press play at the spot for its two to three minute story, or ask the AI guide anything about it.
- Type historic
- Suggested visit ~120 min
- Paris Paris guide
About Père Lachaise Cemetery
The world's most visited cemetery, final resting place of Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Chopin and Proust, with the haunting Wall of the Federals.
Père Lachaise is the most famous cemetery in the world, a city of the dead that is also one of the most visited sites in Paris. Named after Louis XIV's confessor, Father François de la Chaise, who owned the hill on which it was built, the cemetery opened in 1804. Napoleon had Molière and Jean de la Fontaine reinterred here to make it fashionable, the strategy worked spectacularly.
Today it covers 44 hectares and holds over one million permanent residents. The famous include Jim Morrison (died 1971), Oscar Wilde (died 1900, his tomb covered in lipstick kisses), Édith Piaf (died 1963), Frédéric Chopin (died 1849), Marcel Proust (died 1922), Honoré de Balzac, Gertrude Stein, Guillaume Apollinaire, and dozens more. The cemetery's most historically charged spot is the Mur des Fédérés, the Wall of the Federals, where, on 28 May 1871, the last 147 Communards were lined up against the wall and shot by the Versaillais troops who had suppressed the Paris Commune.
Did you know? Napoleon had Molière and La Fontaine reinterred at Père Lachaise to make it fashionable, within a year, every Parisian aristocrat wanted to be buried there.
How long should you spend at Père Lachaise Cemetery?
Plan about ~120 min at Père Lachaise Cemetery. That is enough to take it in and hear its narrated story; stay longer if it grabs you. The tour is self-guided, so there is no rush.
Is Père Lachaise Cemetery worth visiting?
Père Lachaise Cemetery is one of the 44 sights the Gingerguide team researched and narrated in Paris, so it earns a place on a self-guided walk. Its story explains why it matters, and you can ask the AI guide anything the story leaves open.
Nearby stops in Paris
Hear the story of Père Lachaise Cemetery
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