Père Lachaise Cemetery is situated in the 20th arrondissement of Paris and covers a vast area of 110 acres. It is the largest of all cemeteries in Paris. The cemetery was named after Pere Francois de La Chaise, the spiritual advisor to Louis XIV. Over one million visitors flock to Père Lachaise every year to see the final resting places of many famous people from both French and European history. There are also three memorials from World War I on the site and monuments remembering those who died in the Holocaust.
Visiting
The site for the cemetery is at Boulevard de Ménilmontant and is situated on Métro line two. The cemetery can also be easily accessed by the station Père Lachaise which is just 500 meters away and by one of the side entrances. Another alternative is to use Gambetta station that is on line three of the metro. This will allow visitors to enter the site near to the famous tomb of Oscar Wilde and to then take a walk downhill to the other parts of the cemetery. The cemetery had a total of five entrances.
History
The cemetery opened in 1804. The site had been a Jesuit retreat beforehand. Today, the site is one of the largest and most famous of cemeteries in the world. There are many thousands of monuments at the cemetery and some of the greatest names buried at Père Lachaise include Jim Morrison, Francois Pulenc, Chopin, Moliere, Edit Piaf, and many more.
