Père Lachaise Cemetery

Haunting

Père Lachaise in Paris is a famous cemetery where Morrison, Wilde and Kardec lie. Ghost tales exist, but they are guidebook folklore and not verified.

1804 - Present
Paris, France

Père Lachaise Cemetery opened in 1804 on the eastern side of Paris. Wikipedia reports over a million burials across about 44 hectares. Napoleonic-era reform moved burials out of crowded city churchyards, and the cemetery was designed as a garden people could walk in.

Famous graves

Jim Morrison, singer of The Doors, died in Paris in 1971 and is buried here. His grave has been defaced, and a bust placed in 1981 was stolen in 1988. Oscar Wilde’s tomb, sculpted by Jacob Epstein and unveiled in 1914, was covered in lipstick kisses until a glass barrier was built between 2011 and 2014. Allan Kardec, who founded Spiritism and died in 1869, is buried here and his tomb receives many visitors. Chopin, Édith Piaf, and the remains attributed to Abélard and Héloïse are also at the cemetery.

The Communards

In 1871, 147 Communards were executed against the cemetery’s northeastern wall at the end of the Paris Commune. The Mur des Fédérés is now a memorial to them.

Ghost lore

Guidebooks and blogs say that famous spirits walk the cemetery, that Morrison’s grave attracts strange sounds and that one family mausoleum is cursed. These stories are lore. We found no verified first-hand witness accounts and no formal investigation. The mood of the place, with its old stone, dusk and crowds of expectant fans, is enough to explain most reports.

Sources

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