Oscar Wilde's tomb
Behind glass, after lipstick kisses covered it.
Connie Ma from Chicago, United States of America — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Coyau — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Coyau — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Pierre-Yves Beaudouin — CC BY-SA 3.0
**With a map, or you won't.** The cemetery is 44 hectares divided into ninety-nine numbered divisions, its avenues alike, winding and climbing, and many visitors spend an hour hunting a single grave. Take the **free map** from the kiosk at the main entrance on the rue du Repos, or photograph the map boards at the gates, and note the division numbers before you go in. The most famous graves — Morrison, Wilde, Piaf, Chopin — are signposted from the main avenues; anything else needs its division number.
At Père-Lachaise, yes — it was conceived from the start as a **garden cemetery** for people to walk in, a Parisian tradition two centuries old, and the city itself promotes it as a heritage site. But the distinction matters: it is **a working cemetery** where funerals are held and families come. The rules are simple: **don't sit or lean on graves**, don't raise your voice, don't photograph funerals or mourners, and move away if you come upon a ceremony. And no picnics — this is not the place.
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The most famous cemetery in the world, and the most visited green space in Paris. It opened in **1804** on Napoleon's order after the city's burial grounds filled and were closed on public health grounds, and at the time it stood outside Paris on a hill. Its start was a failure: Parisians refused to be buried in a distant, unconsecrated place. So the administration resorted to a marketing trick ahead of its time — in 1817 it **moved the remains of Abelard and Héloïse** (French history's most famous lovers) and of **Molière** into the cemetery. The trick worked, and people rushed to be buried near the famous. Today it is **44 hectares** of paved streets, old trees and more than seventy thousand graves, some carved like small works of architecture: Gothic chapels, Romantic monuments and statuary. Here lie **Oscar Wilde** (his tomb behind glass, after lipstick kisses covered it), **Jim Morrison** of the Doors (the most visited and most guarded), **Chopin**, **Édith Piaf**, **Balzac**, **Proust**, **Maria Callas** and **Gertrude Stein**. ⚠ It is **a working cemetery**, not a park — funerals take place here, and behaving respectfully is required.
Behind glass, after lipstick kisses covered it.
The most visited grave here, and the most guarded.
Moving Molière and Abelard to rescue a failing cemetery.
16 Rue du Repos, 75020 Paris