Cimetière du Père-Lachaise

Paris's largest (44 ha/100 ac) and most beautiful cemetery, named after Louis XIV's confessor, Père La Chaise, was laid out in 1804 on land belonging to the Jesuits. It contains the grave of the last Communards, who were shot here against the Mur des Fédérés in 1871, and a memorial to those who died in Nazi concentration camps. Among the many famous people buried here are Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin), Jean de La Fontaine, Honoré Balzac, Marcel Proust, Gérard de Nerval, Eugène Delacroix, Frédéric Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Guillaume Apollinaire, Alfred de Musset, Jean-Louis David, Dr Guillotin (inventor of the guillotine), Edith Piaf, Colette, Gertrude Stein, Max Ernst, Paul Eluard, Modigliani, Maria Callas, Jim Morrison, Serge Gainsbourg, Simone Signoret and Yves Montand. To the east of the Avenue Principale is the old Jewish part of the cemetery, with the graves of Camille Pissaro, Rothschild and Singer. A plan with a list of the graves can be obtained at the entrance.