This point sits inside the cimetière du Père-Lachaise, the biggest cemetery in Paris, on the Boulevard de Ménilmontant.
Last reviewed 16 October 2026 · A three-minute read · 1164–now
The short answer
Père Lachaise, the largest cemetery in Paris, opened in 1804 on Boulevard de Ménilmontant on land once held by Jesuits and by Louis XIV's confessor, Père François de la Chaise. It now covers 110 acres and holds Molière, Balzac, Champollion, Oscar Wilde and Édith Piaf, alongside the Communards' Wall and France's first crematorium, opened in 1889.
PERE LACHAISE — 2007 · jean melis · CC BY 3.0
1626 to 1762
A king's confessor gave this hill his name
Père Lachaise Cemetery is a 110-acre burial ground in eastern Paris, the largest in the city and one of the most visited cemeteries in the world. This point lies near its main gate on Boulevard de Ménilmontant, where the gravel paths wind uphill past stone chapels and old trees.
Before it was a cemetery, this hill was called Mont-Louis. Jesuits bought the land in 1626 to use as a rest house for their order. A priest named François de la Chaise moved in and, with money from Louis XIV, had a château built here in 1676. He was the king's confessor for over thirty years, and the hill eventually took his name. Louis XIV himself is said to have watched fighting between rival armies from this high ground in 1652, during the civil wars known as the Fronde. When the Jesuits were expelled from France in 1762, the property passed into private hands and sat mostly forgotten for forty years.
1804 to 1830
Molière's bones were moved here to win fame
Napoleon's administration bought the land in 1803 and hired the architect Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart to lay out a new cemetery with curving paths instead of straight rows. It opened on 21 May 1804 as the Cemetery of the East. A five-year-old girl, Adélaïde Paillard de Villeneuve, became its first burial that same month.
Parisians did not want to be buried so far from the city, and the cemetery struggled. The administrators needed a better reputation. In 1817, they staged the transfer of Molière and Jean de La Fontaine's remains here, followed by the supposed bones of the medieval lovers Abélard and Héloïse, under a monument built from fragments of their old abbey. By 1830, burials had climbed past 33,000.
1871
Soldiers shot 147 Communards against the cemetery wall
In May 1871, the cemetery became a battleground. The Paris Commune, a radical government that had seized the city, was collapsing under attack from the French Army. The last Communards fled uphill into Père Lachaise and fought among the graves. On May 28, soldiers rounded up 147 of them and shot them against a wall on the cemetery's southeastern edge, now called the Communards' Wall. The wall still draws the French political left every year.
1887 to 1920
France's first legal cremation happened inside this cemetery
France's first crematorium opened here in 1887, built by the architect Jean-Camille Formigé in a Neo-Byzantine style of brick domes and stained glass. The first legal cremation in the country took place inside it on January 30, 1889.
The cemetery kept drawing the famous dead through the early 20th century. The poet Guillaume Apollinaire was buried here in 1918, after dying of influenza days before the war ended. The painter Amedeo Modigliani followed in 1920; his companion Jeanne Hébuterne was later brought to lie beside him.
1944
Paris's liberation brought fighting back among the graves
During the liberation of Paris in 1944, Père Lachaise became a battlefield again. Fighting between French and German forces spilled across its paths and tombs, the second time the cemetery had seen armed combat within a century.
1963 to 2008
Édith Piaf was buried beside emperors' confessors
Édith Piaf was buried here in 1963, in her family's grave. By the late 20th century the cemetery held celebrated musicians, writers, and actors alongside its revolutionaries and emperors' confessors, and it had become one of the most visited cemeteries anywhere, drawing more than three and a half million visitors a year.
France recognized the site's importance formally, listing it as a classified historical monument in 1995 and again in 2008.
Today
Visitors still walk Brongniart's curving 1804 paths
Père Lachaise now holds an estimated several hundred thousand to a million burials across its 110 acres, making it the largest green space in Paris as well as its largest cemetery. Visitors walk the same curving paths Brongniart laid out in 1804, past more than 4,000 trees and stone chapels, and still leave letters at the tomb of Abélard and Héloïse in hope of finding love of their own. The gravel paths near the main gate on Boulevard de Ménilmontant fill daily with people tracing a map of the famous dead, from Molière to Piaf, from Chopin to Oscar Wilde.
Gravel paths wind uphill past chapels, old trees, and the graves of some of France's most famous dead.
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Medieval
1164 (died); reburied 1817
The medieval nun and philosopher Héloïse, who died in 1164, was reburied here with Abélard in 1817 as part of a publicity campaign to make the new cemetery fashionable.
In July 1778 a gypsum quarry beneath Ménilmontant collapsed and killed seven miners, leading to a royal ban on underground gypsum mining the following year.
The city of Paris opened the cemetery in 1804 on land once held by Jesuits and by Louis XIV's confessor Père François de la Chaise, after whom it is named.
The administrators staged the transfer of Molière's and Jean de La Fontaine's remains here in 1817 to overcome Parisians' reluctance to be buried so far from the city center.
On 28 May 1871 the French Army lined up the last fighters of the Paris Commune against this cemetery wall and shot them, burying them in mass graves on the spot.
The cemetery's Byzantine-style columbarium and crematorium, designed by Jean-Camille Formigé, hosted France's first legal cremation on 30 January 1889.
early 20th century residence; assassination 25 May 1926
The anarchist Samuel Schwartzbard lived and worked in a watchmaker's shop on Boulevard de Ménilmontant before he assassinated the exiled Ukrainian leader Simon Petlioura elsewhere in Paris in 1926.
On 17 October 1961, during the police crackdown on a pro-FLN demonstration, at least two Algerians, Zebodj Mohamed and Zeman Rabah, were killed in the Ménilmontant neighborhood.
The hill was called Mont-Louis and was bought by Jesuits in 1626 as a rest house for their order; a priest named François de la Chaise later had a château built there in 1676 with money from Louis XIV.
What happened at the Communards' Wall in Père Lachaise?
On 28 May 1871, during the fall of the Paris Commune, the French Army rounded up 147 Communards who had fled into the cemetery and shot them against a wall on its southeastern edge, now called the Communards' Wall.
Why is it called Père Lachaise?
The cemetery takes its name from François de la Chaise, a Jesuit priest who was confessor to Louis XIV for over thirty years and lived in a château built on the site.
Who is buried at Père Lachaise?
Burials include Molière, Jean de La Fontaine, the medieval lovers Abélard and Héloïse, the painter Amedeo Modigliani, the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, and the singer Édith Piaf, among several hundred thousand others.
When was France's first crematorium built at Père Lachaise?
France's first crematorium opened at Père Lachaise in 1887, designed by Jean-Camille Formigé in a Neo-Byzantine style, and hosted the country's first legal cremation on 30 January 1889.
How big is Père Lachaise cemetery?
Père Lachaise covers 110 acres and is both the largest cemetery and the largest green space in Paris, holding an estimated several hundred thousand to a million burials.
