Cimetière du Père-Lachaise - Paris II

Père Lachaise opened as a Cemetery in 1804 and became a very successful piece of land speculation. Nicolas Frochot, the urban planner who developed the cemetery, persuaded the civil authorities to rebury Molière, La Fontaine, Abélard and Héloïse in his new cemetery.

Quickly Père-Lachaise became the ultimate symbol for the rich and famous as well as an affirmation of the role of government. Frochot, even sold a plot to the original owner for considerably more money than the price he had paid for the entire site. Even today, the fees are extremely high. Some of the most celebrated dead have unremarkable tombs while those whose fame died with them have the most expressive monuments.

Of the twenty cemeteries in Paris, Père-Lachaise is the most famous, it now has over 70,000 plots and receives some two million visitors a year from all over the world. With 44 hectares and 5,300 trees, Père-Lachaise is also the largest park in Paris.