Pere Lachaise

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

par la-shaz', a celebrated burial ground of Paris. It was named after Lachaise, the Jesuit confessor of Louis XIV , whose summer seat occupied the site of the present chapel. The grounds were laid out as a cemetery in 1804. It lies on a hill at the northeastern end of town. It covers an area of 110 acres. While Pere Lachaise is only one of twenty-three city burial grounds and is designed primarily for the burial of the people who die in that quarter of the city, it is the cemetery in which persons of distinction are buried usually. Ordinary families acquire a space of ground three feet wide by seven long. A pit is dug perhaps thirty feet in depth. An iron post is placed at each corner, with crosspieces to sustain the coffins. The first coffin is placed at the bottom of the pit, the second next above it, and so on, until the grave is full. In this way, perhaps a dozen or more interments may be made in the same grave. The cemetery is open to visitors from six in the morning until seven at night. There are over 20,000 marble and granite monuments. Well shaded walks and avenues intersect in every direction. Among the monuments visited are the Gothic canopy of Abelard and Heloise; the chapel of the De Lesseps family; the monuments of Chopin and Pleyel, pianists; the graves of Thiers, Sieyes, and Marshal Ney; Gay-Lussac, the chemist; Lafontaine, the writer of fables; Moliere, the dramatist; Laplace, the mathematician; David, the painter; and Arago, the astronomer. All interments are in charge of a company licensed for the purpose. According to custom visitors stand with uncovered heads whenever a funeral procession goes by. The immediate vicinity of the principal cemetery gates is occupied by marbleworkers and sellers of flowers. See Abelard ; Cemetery