Montparnasse Cemetery: A Resting Place for Artists

Now let's stroll through Montparnasse Cemetery, famous for its many artists' graves. Behind it rises the Montparnasse Tower, the second-tallest structure in Paris after the Eiffel Tower. Covering 19 hectares in the 14th arrondissement, it is the second-largest cemetery in Paris after Père-Lachaise. It was laid out in a district where artists once gathered to live, so it naturally holds a great many artists' graves. With 1,200 trees, it has a park-like feel, and many of the graves are decorated with works of art, which makes it a pleasure to wander. Get off at Edgar Quinet on metro line 4 and you will find it right away.

The cemetery opened in 1824 on land that merged three farms. Just as Père-Lachaise was known as the Eastern Cemetery, Montparnasse was called the Southern Cemetery. The cemeteries earned their compass-point names after a law banned burials inside Paris on hygiene and health grounds, and graves in the middle of the city were moved to the outskirts. City boundaries have since changed, so all of them now lie within Paris, but at the time Père-Lachaise stood to the east, Montparnasse to the south and Montmartre Cemetery, which we visit next, to the north.

Montparnasse holds not only artists but also the graves of firefighters and police officers who gave their lives for Paris. Avenue Émile Richard divides the cemetery, and the smaller section is called the Petit Cimetière, the larger the Grand Cimetière.