Angel statute
A small step in time and the Jesuits are turning up on the eastern Paris under Louis the XIVth. The hill serves as a last-minute gift to the king who pays an unexpected visit and is therefore rebaptisted the Mont-Louis. During this period, a famous character resides in the vast mansion built on the hill. Advisor but mostly confessor to the “roi soleil” for 34 years, the père François de la Chaize is part of the place and gets to be known by all Parisians. He would lend to the place its final name.
At the time, Paris’ 200 cemeteries are saturated and only 20% of the inhumed have a right to an individual concession. Others are buried altogether in a manner not so different from the communal graves. Hygiene conditions were clearly unsatisfactory and the risk of epidemics high. In order to fix this situation and not overburden the centre of Paris, new places are chosen outside the city and the idea of the Père-Lachaise is born since 1801. The construction of the cemeteries of Montmartre and of Montparnasse first outside of Paris bears witness to this same will.
It’s at the start of the XIXth century that things really start moving. And it is not long before we can observe the opening by Napoleon himself of the first unreligious French cemetery on the 21 of May, 1804. Indeed, it is the first one to offer a place to those practicing any religion without exceptions. This is how Paris’s first mosque was built up, 70 years before that of the 5th arrondissement. The new principle of concessions attract a new type of customers, more familial.
Today, the cemetery is still innovating
By Alice Cannet
Published : April 29, 2010
Photo credit : © APPL
