P = Père Lachaise Cemetery, French Faves - A to Z Challenge 2015

Walk softly here, many are resting. . .

Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, by DG Hudson

P = Père Lachaise Cemetery
Cimetière du Père-Lachaise

In the city of Paris, Père Lachaise Cemetery occupies 44 hectares or 110 acres. Located in the 20th arrondissement, it was the first municipal cemetery in Paris. It also contains many well-known personalities, a venerable list of the famous.

Family Tomb at Père Lachaise, Paris, by DG Hudson

The cemetery was bought by the city in 1804 and established by Napoleon the same year. As the graveyards of Paris filled, several other large cemeteries were established outside the precincts of the capital. Montmartre Cemetery in the north joined Père Lachaise in the east, with Montparnasse Cemetery in the south, and Passy Cemetery in the west, at the heart of the city.


Père Lachaise Cemetery had few occupants at first, but by arranging to bury a few notable citizens there, the area became more desirable as a final resting place. Some of the noteworthy citizens now are: Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Stephane Grappelli, Isadora Duncan, Chopin, and Camille Pissarro. There are many more on this list of those interred or cremated.  Scroll down the Wikipedia page to locate the list.

The rules for being buried in a Paris cemetery are rather strict: to be buried here a person must die in the French capital, or they must have lived in Paris.

Edith Piaf, Pere Lachaise, Paris, by DG Hudson

In order to gain more visibility for the cemetery, in 1817, the remains of Pierre Abelard and Heloise d'Argenteuil were transferred to the cemetery with their monuments canopy made from fragments of the abbey of Nogent-sur-Seine. By tradition, so it is said, lovers or lovelorn singles, leave letters at the crypt in tribute to the couple or in hope of finding true love for themselves. Ah, romance. . in Paris, it touches everything.

Today over one million bodies are buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery and many more in the Columbarium, which holds the remains of those who requested cremation (see below). Family tombs contain multiple burials to make the best use of limited space.

Isadora Duncan, Pere Lachaise, in Paris, by DG Hudson

The Communards' Wall (Mur des Fédérés) is also located in the cemetery. This is where 147 Communards, the last defenders of the workers' district of Belleville, were shot on May 28, 1871. The Paris commune was crushed on the last day of "Bloody Week".


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American singer/songwriter Jim Morrison's (The Doors) gravesite has been subject to crowds and some vandalism (as has Oscar Wilde's). According to Wikipedia, the lease of the gravesite was upgraded to perpetual by Morrison's parents, and is guarded to protect the site itself and others tombs nearby from ardent fans.

 Jim Morrison, Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France - CC*

NOTE: As we made our way through the cemetery, looking for and locating those gravesites we wanted to pay respects to, we were approached by a man who offered to show us around the cemetery and claimed to be an expert in helping those who couldn't find the sites they sought. We declined. My imagination ran rampant afterwards though. What if he was a descendant of the communards who were finished off here?  Or a ghost of the cemetery? Or could he have been trying to lure unsuspecting tourists to another location?  We'll never know, but I can live with that. He gave us no trouble, and we went out the main entrance and down the hill.


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Have you heard of Père Lachaise Cemetery? Or have you visited other famous cemeteries to pay homage to a particular person? Do you find cemeteries interesting or creepy? 


Please leave a comment to let me know you stopped by, and if you are part of the A to Z Challenge. I'll be sure to check your blog, and reciprocate. If you're not in the challenge, thanks for stopping by to visit! I try to reply to all comments.

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The A to Z Blog Challenge is brainchild of Lee, at Tossing It Out.  Please visit the A to Z blog site to find out more information and the participant list.  There are also Twitter and Facebook presences if you want to check those!

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References:

DG's previous post on Père Lachaise Cemetery
http://dghudson.blogspot.ca/2012/01/paris-pere-lachaise-cemetery.html

Wiki on Père Lachaise Cemetery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A8re_Lachaise_Cemetery


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IMAGE: Grave of Jim Morrison, Paris, France*CC = Creative Commons
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.  By SuzanneGW

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Pierre Abelard and Heloise d'Argenteuil - the story

http://sacred-texts.com/chr/aah/index.htm The story of love between a nun and her teacher, a noble lecturer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A9lo%C3%AFse_d'Argenteuil Wiki

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W = Wilde Thing - A to Z Challenge

Wilde, Oscar
A man before his time. . .

Oscar Wilde, by Napoleon Sarony (Wikipedia, PD-Art)

Wilde, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today, he is remembered for his epigrams, plays and the circumstances of his imprisonment, followed by his early death.  His story is a good illustration of the society kiss of death.  One minute you're the darling, step out of line, and you're old news.

After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.  He published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada and then returned to London where he worked as a journalist.  Wilde became one of the most well-known personalities of his day. 



In mid-1887, Wilde was the editor of The Lady's World magazine, his name prominently appearing on the cover. He renamed it The Woman's World and raised its tone, adding serious articles on parenting, culture, and politics, keeping discussions of fashion and arts. Two pieces of fiction were usually included, one to be read to children, the other for the ladies themselves.


At the turn of the 1890s, he wrote of decadence, duplicity, and beauty in his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). He wrote Salome (1891) in French in Paris but, it was refused a licence.  Wilde instead then produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London.



At the height of his fame and success, Wilde became embroiled in a social scandal related to his sexual preferences and ended up serving time in prison at hard labour.  Upon his release he left Ireland, never to return there or to Britain again. He lived the rest of his life in France, and there he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.

Oscar Wilde's Monument, before the cleaning, by DG Hudson

Oscar's health declined sharply until he collapsed during chapel from illness and hunger.  His right ear drum was ruptured in the fall, an injury that would contribute to his death. He spent two months in the infirmary.


Wilde's final address was at the dingy Hôtel d'Alsace (L'Hôtel) in Paris.  He died of cerebral meningitis on 30 November 1900, destitute in Paris at the age of forty-six.  Wilde's physicians, Dr. Paul Cleiss and A'Court Tucker, reported that the condition stemmed from an old suppuration of the right ear.

Oscar Wilde's Monument Side and front, before cleanup, by DG Hudson

In 1909, his remains were disinterred to Père Lachaise Cemetery inside the city.  His tomb was designed by Sir Jacob Epstein.  Until recently, Oscar's monument was covered with kisses, comments, signatures, and more as high as humans hands could reach.  The tomb was cleaned and partially covered by protective clear material.  See the video below for the details.

'No More Wilde Kisses' Huffington Post Article

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Do you like Oscar Wilde's writing? His witty quotes?  Please share any comments about his works that you've read.  Have you read or seen Dorian Gray?

DG's Theme:  Paris, Etc. (Art, Film, Places, and People
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References:
Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Oscar Wilde's Monument
http://dghudson.blogspot.ca/2012/01/paris-pere-lachaise-cemetery.html

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/oscar-wilde  Bio - Oscar Wilde

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde  Oscar Wilde, general info

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/wilde_oscar.shtml Historic figures