Why do so many people love the cemeteries of Paris? First of all, because the history of Paris is full of larger-than-life figures, many of whom ended up resting in eternal sleep in one of its cemeteries.
Second, because that’s where you’ll find some of the most beautiful and moving tombstones in the world. A visit to a Parisian cemetery is a bit like visiting a place that combines a lovely park with a free museum.
And third, because of the unique atmosphere and the many stories each cemetery can tell you, some of which you’ll read in the articles below.
As you’ll see, cemeteries don’t have to be just sprawling parks, like Père Lachaise Cemetery or Montparnasse Cemetery. They can just as easily be churches that were turned into burial sites for VIPs, like the Panthéon or Saint-Denis Cathedral, which I’ll write about soon.
And finally, I haven’t forgotten our four-legged friends, so you’ll also find an article here about the world’s first pet cemetery, located in the northwestern suburb of Asnières.
But just before we set off on our journey among the graves, let me share with you a little poem I once wrote on the subject, which I hope will put you in the right mood.
There, Among the Stones
Next time you visit a cemetery,
don’t head straight for your destination.
Wander slowly, step around the hollows,
peek at the headstones, you might find poetry.
Because there, among the stones and graves,
the people are buried, but the muse lives on.
She’s etched in rock, in sorrowful lines,
on the grave of some dear departed man, or his beloved wife.
And if the headstones have nothing to say,
talk to the dead, they won’t let you down.
Listen to their stories as if there’s no tomorrow,
even though they’ll surely cloud your happiness.
At the end of the day, say a nice thank you,
brush the dust off your clothes.
Go back to your poetry and your work,
and say, “thank God there are dead people”!
The History of Paris’s Cemeteries
Before we start our journey among Paris’s various cemeteries, a few words on the main reason they came to be.
Until the end of the 18th century, Parisians buried their dead in cemeteries attached to the many churches built in the city during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The most famous cemetery in Paris at the time was the one next to the Church of the Holy Innocents, which also stood right by the city’s great wholesale market, Les Halles.
Being so close to the market created no small hygiene problem, because during floods, the dead who had been buried last, and were closest to the surface, would start floating up and “wandering” among the fruit and vegetable stalls. Over the course of the 18th century, things only got worse, and as corpses piled up in mass graves, the dead began “pushing” through the basement walls of nearby houses. So Parisians, heading down to their cellars to grab a good bottle of wine for dinner, might run into a greeting from the other world in the shape of an anonymous corpse’s hand sticking out of the wall.
Because of the overcrowding in central Paris’s cemeteries, it was decided in the 1780s to move the bones of the dead from the cemeteries in central Paris into a number of abandoned quarries south of the city, creating the famous Catacombs. At the same time, it was decided to establish four cemeteries outside the city walls, which would meet the burial needs of the City of Light.
The new cemeteries, which began to take shape in the early 19th century, include the cemetery of Montmartre in the north
Alongside the establishment of the large cemeteries “for the general public,” Paris also saw the creation of a few more exclusive burial sites.
The first is Saint-Denis Cathedral, which since the 7th century has served as the royal burial site of the kings of France. Another church that became a burial site for very important people is the Church of Sainte-Geneviève, known to us as the Panthéon, where some of France’s greatest minds are buried. And finally, we certainly can’t forget Les Invalides, where Napoleon is buried alongside a number of other important military figures.
In the upcoming articles, we’ll visit each and every one of the burial sites I’ve mentioned. All that’s left for you to do now is scroll down a bit, pick an article, and dive into the stories.
All articles about
Paris’s burial sites
Cemeteries
Other interesting burial sites
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