Paris's A-list resting place

Everyone from Edith Piaf to Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison is buried in Père Lachaise cemetery. Demi Perera takes a walk among the tombs and uncovers its remarkable history

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Steaming coffee in hand, I’m admiring Le Radeau de la Méduse – the Raft of the Medusa – on a crisp morning in Paris. But I’m not at the Louvre, or any of the (many) galleries and museums. Instead, I’m standing by the grave of Théodore Géricault.

His famous oil painting has been sculpted in bronze to one side of his gravestone at the most-visited cemetery in the world: Père Lachaise. Here, spread across this 110-acre city of immortals, Gericault joins Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison, Amedeo Modigliani and Oscar Wilde amongst an estimated 1 million others.

“Père Lachaise is more than a cemetery – it’s an archive of Paris,” says Anthony Schmitt, Parisian and head concierge at the Shangri-La Paris hotel. “It has preserved the city’s history through the graves of its greatest minds, moments of struggle and artistry of the tombs. It’s a place of cultural significance for Parisians.”

The story of how history’s good and great secured a plot at this illustrious resting place is quite the yarn. Traditionally, there have been just two requirements for potential residents: that they were a citizen of Paris, or that they died here. In actual fact, anyone can rest for eternity in these non-denominational grounds. In the 21st century, however, your chance of winning a place among them is greatly reduced due to the limited space and long waiting time for burial plots.

This wasn’t always the case, however.