Paris, Cimetière de Montmartre

Montmartre Cemetery (French: Cimetière de Montmartre) is a cemetery in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, France, that dates to the early 19th century. Officially known as the Cimitière du Nord, it is the third largest necropolis in Paris, after the Père Lachaise cemetery and the Montparnasse cemetery.

History

In the mid-18th century, overcrowding in the cemeteries of Paris had created numerous problems, from impossibly high funeral costs to unsanitary living conditions in the surrounding neighborhoods. In the 1780s, the Cimetière des Innocents was officially closed and citizens were banned from burying corpses within the city limits of Paris. During the early 19th century, new cemeteries were constructed outside the precincts of the capital: Montmartre in the north, Père Lachaise Cemetery in the east, Passy Cemetery in the west and Montparnasse Cemetery in the south.

The Montmartre Cemetery was opened on January 1, 1825. It was initially known as la Cimetière des Grandes Carrières (Cemetery of the Large Quarries). The name referenced the cemetery's unique location, in an abandoned gypsum quarry. The quarry had previously been used during the French Revolution as a mass grave. It was built below street level, in the hollow of an abandoned gypsum quarry located west of the Butte near the beginning of Rue Caulaincourt in Place de Clichy. As is still the case today, its sole entrance was constructed on Avenue Rachel under Rue Caulaincourt.

A popular tourist destination even today, Montmartre Cemetery is the final resting place of many famous artists who lived and worked in the Montmartre area. See the full list of notable interments below.

Notable interments

A

• Adolphe Adam (1803–1856), composer
• Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813–1888), composer
• André-Marie Ampère (1775–1836), physicist (namesake of electrical unit ampere)
• Édouard André (1840–1911), landscape architect

B

• Benjamin Ball (physician) (1833-1893), psychiatrist
• Michel Berger (1947–1992), composer, singer
• Hector Berlioz (1803–1869), composer (originally buried in a less prominent plot in the same cemetery)
• Mélanie "Mel" Bonis (1858–1937), composer
• François Claude Amour, marquis de Bouillé (1739-1800), royalist general named in the French National Anthem, La Marseillaise
• Lili Boulanger (1893–1918), composer
• Nadia Boulanger (1887–1979), composer
• Georges Hilaire Bousquet (1846–1937), jurist, legal scholar
• Marcel Boussac (1889–1980), entrepreneur
• Giuseppina Bozzacchi, (1853-1870), ballerina
• Victor Brauner (1903–1966), painter
• Václav Brožík (1851–1901), Czech painter
• Alfred-Arthur Brunel de Neuville (1852–1941), painter
• Myles Byrne (1780–1862), Irish revolutionary soldier

C

• Moïse de Camondo (1860–1935), banker
• Nissim de Camondo (1892–1917), banker, World War I pilot
• Marie-Antoine Carême (1784–1833), famed inventor of classical cuisine
• Louis-Eugène Cavaignac (1802-1857), politician
• Fanny Cerrito (1817–1909), Italian ballerina
• Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893), neurologist
• Jacques Charon (1920–1975), actor
• Théodore Chassériau (1819–1856), painter
• Henri-Georges Clouzot (1907–1977), director and screenwriter
• Véra Clouzot (1913–1960), actress

D

• Dalida (1933–1987), ItaloFrench Egyptian-born singer and actress, singing diva.
• Louis Antoine Debrauz de Saldapenna (1811–1871), Austrian writer and diplomat
• Edgar Degas (1834–1917), famous painter, sculptor
• Léo Delibes (1836–1891), composer of Romantic music
• Maria Deraismes (1828–1894), social reformer, feminist
• Narcisse Virgilio Díaz (1808–1876), painter
• William Didier-Pouget (1864–1959), artist painter
• Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney (fr) (1873–1928), prominent early Bahá'í
• Maxime Du Camp (1822–1894), author
• Alexandre Dumas, fils (1824–1895), novelist, playwright
• Marie Duplessis (1824–1847), French courtesan
• François Duprat (1941–1978), Assassinated political radical

 

F

• Renée Jeanne Falconetti (1892–1946), actress, notable for La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc.
• Jean Marie Joseph Farina (1785–1864), Manufacturer of eau de Cologne, concession à perpétuité nos 368 et 750 – 1881, (19th division)
• Georges Feydeau (1862–1921), playwright of La Belle Époque
• Léon Foucault (1819–1868), scientist
• Charles Fourier (1772–1837), utopian socialist
• Christopher Fratin (1801–1864), animalier sculptor
• Carole Fredericks (1952–2001), African-American singer

G

• Theophile Gautier (1811–1872), poet, novelist
• Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904), painter
• José Melchor Gomis (1791–1836), Spanish Romantic composer
• Edmond de Goncourt (1822–1896), author/publisher (patron of the Prix Goncourt)
• Jules de Goncourt (1830–1870), author/publisher
• Amédée Gordini (1899–1979), Gordini sports car manufacturer
• La Goulue (Louise Weber) (1866–1929), Can-can dancer (she was originally buried in the Cimetière de Pantin)
• Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805), artist
• Béla Grünwald (1839–1891), Hungarian historian and politician
• Jules Guérin (1860-1910), nationalist political radical
• Lucien Guitry (1860–1925), actor
• Sacha Guitry (1885–1957), actor/director
• Charles Gumery (1827–1871), sculptor
• John Gunning (1773-1863), army Surgeon at the Battle of Waterloo

H

• Fromental Halévy (1799–1862), composer
• Heinrich Heine (1797–1856), German poet
• Fanny Heldy (1888–1973), Belgian soprano
• Jacques Ignace Hittorff (1792–1867), architect

I

• François-André Isambert (1792–1857), lawyer, historian, and politician
• Daniel Iffla (1825-1907), Jewish philanthropist and financier

J

• Maurice Jaubert (1900–1940), composer, conductor
• André Jolivet (1905–1974), composer
• Marcel Jouhandeau (1888–1979), author
• Louis Jouvet (1887–1951), actor
• Anna Judic (1850–1911), actress, chanteuse
• Antoine-Henri Jomini (1779–1869), French General, Military Author

K

• Friedrich Kalkbrenner (1784–1849), pianist, composer
• Miecislas Kamieński, a Polish soldier, mentioned because the statue of Jules Franceschi on his grave is well known
• Julian Klemczyński, (1807 or 1810-1851?), pianist, composer
• Marie-Pierre Kœnig (1898–1970), Free French Field Marshal
• Bernard-Marie Koltès (1948–1989), playwright, director
• Joseph Kosma (1905–1969), composer

L

• Eugène Labiche (1815–1888), dramatist
• Dominique Laffin (1952–1985), actress
• Charles Lamoureux (1834–1899), violinist
• Jean Lannes (1769–1809), Marshal of France (his heart only, the body is in the Pantheon)
• Pierre Leonard Laurecisque (1797–1880), architect
• Margaret Kelly Leibovici (1910–2004), Miss Bluebell, Irish dancer
• Frédérick Lemaître (1800–1876), actor
• Elisabeth Leseur (1866-1914), Venerable (of the Roman Catholic Church)
• Emma Livry (1842–1863), ballet dancer

M

• Aimé Maillart (1817–1871), composer
• Henri Meilhac (1831–1897), dramatist
• Mary Marquet (1895–1979), actress
• Victor Massé (1822–1884), composer
• Joseph Porter Michaels (1838–1912), American dentist, professor at the Dental School of Paris, he collaborated with Professor Péan for the creation of the first shoulder prosthesis
• Auguste de Montferrand (1786–1858), architect
• Gustave Moreau (1826–1898), symbolist painter
• Aimé Morot (1850-1913), academic art painter
• Henri Murger (1822–1861), novelist
• Musidora (1889-1957), actress/director/writer

N

• Vaslav Nijinsky (1890–1950), Russian ballet dancer
• Adolphe Nourrit (1802–1839), tenor
• Eugène Nyon (1812-1870), playwright and novelist
• Alphonse de Neuville (1836–1885), painter whose funerary monument was realized by Francis de Saint-Vidal

O

• Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880), French composer of German descent
• Georges Ohnet (1848–1919), writer
• Takanori Oguiss (1901–1986), Japanese painter
• Harriet Osborne O'Hagan (1830-1921), Irish portrait artist

P

• Théophile-Jules Pelouze (1807–1867), chemist
• Emile Péreire (1800–1875), financier
• Isaac Péreire (1806–1880), financier
• Jacob Rodrigues Péreire (1715–1780), educator
• Francis Picabia (1879–1953), painter
• Giles William Playfair (1910–1996), writer, the son of English actor Sir Nigel Playfair
• Alphonsine Plessis (1824–1847), "La Dame aux Camélias"
• Patrick Pons (1952–1980), motorcycle racer
• Pierre Alexis Ponson du Terrail (1829–1871), novelist
• Jean Le Poulain (1924–1988), actor
• Francisque Poulbot (1879–1946), painter, illustrator
• Olga Preobrajenska (1871–1962), ballet dancer (according to other sources, she is buried in the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery)

 

R

• Juliette Récamier (1777–1849), socialite and woman of letters
• Salomon Reinach (1858–1932), archaeologist
• Ernest Renan (1823–1892), writer
• Jacques Rigaut (1898–1929), poet
• Jacques Rivette (1928-2016), film director and film critic
• Henri Rivière (1827–1883), naval officer, writer
• Jean Rédélé (1922–2007), automotive pioneer, pilot and founder of the French automotive brand Alpine.
• Hilda Roosevelt (1881–1965), opera singer, daughter of Cornelius Roosevelt (1847-1902)
• Jeanne Roques aka Musidora (1889-1957), Actress/writer/director

S

• Joseph Isidore Samson (1793-1871), actor and playwright
• Henri Sauguet (1901–1989), composer
• Adolphe Sax (1814–1894), musical instrument artisan (inventor of saxophone)
• Ary Scheffer (1795–1858), painter
• Helen Scott (1915–1987), Truffaut / Hitchcock
• Philippe Paul de Ségur, Count of Ségur (1780–1873), historian
• Claude Simon (1913–2005), novelist
• Juliusz Słowacki (1809-1849), Polish romantic poet
• Harriet Smithson (1808–1854), Anglo-Irish actress, the first wife of Hector Berlioz, and the inspiration for his Symphonie fantastique
• Fernando Sor (1778–1839), guitarist
• Alexandre Soumet (1788–1845), poet
• Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle) (1783–1842), writer
• Charles Henri Sanson (1739–1806), executioner of Louis XVI

T

• Marie Taglioni (1804–1884), ballerina
• Ludmilla Tchérina (1924–2004), dancer, actress and painter
• Ambroise Thomas (1811–1896), opera composer
• Armand Toussaint (1806-1862), sculptor
• Constant Troyon (1810–1865), painter
• François Truffaut (1932–1984), French New Wave filmmaker and director

U

• Stanislaw Ulam (1909–1984), Polish mathematician

V

• Pierre-Jean Vaillard (1918–1988), actor
• Horace Vernet (1789–1863), painter
• Auguste Vestris (1760–1842), dancer
• Gaétan Vestris (1729–1808), dancer
• Pauline Viardot (1821–1910), opera singer, composer
• Alfred de Vigny (1797–1863), poet, playwright, novelist
• Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (1798–1875), luthier

W

• René Waldeck-Rousseau (1846–1904), politician
• Georges-Fernand Widal (1862–1929), bacteriologist

 

Z

• Émile Zola (1840–1902), author (original site, moved to the Panthéon in 1908). It should be noted however, that the Zola family grave is still there, with Émile's name on it.