Montmartre Cemetery

The Cemetery of Montmartre (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 Cimetière 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 1 January 1825. It was initially known as le 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, Montmartre Cemetery is the final resting place of many famous artists who lived and worked in the Montmartre area. Notable interments Adolphe Adam (1803–1856), composer Yvette Alde (1911–1967), painter Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813–1888), composer André-Marie Ampère (1775–1836), physicist (namesake of electrical unit ampere) Édouard André (1840–1911), landscape architect Chloé Ansel (2006–2015), murder victim Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga (1806–1826), composer Alfred-Arthur Brunel de Neuville (1852–1941), painter Benjamin Ball (physician) (1833–1893), psychiatrist Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville (1680–1767), explorer, governor, founder of New Orleans Michel Berger (1947–1992), composer, singer Hector Berlioz (1803–1869), composer (originally buried in a less prominent plot in the same cemetery) Léon Boëllmann (1862–1897), composer and organist Alexandre Boëly (1785–1858), composer and organist 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 Moïse de Camondo (1860–1935), banker Nissim de Camondo (1892–1917), banker, World War I pilot Aimée Campton (1882–1930), actress Pierre Cardin (1922–2020), Fashion Designer 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 Henri-Bernard Dabadie (1797–1853), operatic baritone Zulmé Dabadie (1795–1877), operatic soprano Dalida (1933–1987), Egyptian-born Italo-French singer and actress Louis Antoine Debrauz de Saldapenna (1811–1871), Austrian writer and diplomat Edgar Degas (1834–1917), Impressionist 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 Maxime Du Camp (1822–1894), author Norbert Dufourcq (1904–1990), organist, musicologist, writer Alexandre Dumas, fils (1824–1895), novelist, playwright Marie Duplessis (1824–1847), courtesan, The Lady of the Camellias François Duprat (1941–1978), assassinated political radical Renée Jeanne Falconetti (1892–1946), actress, notable for La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc. 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 France Gall (1947–2018), singer Theophile Gautier (1811–1872), poet, novelist Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904), painter Eugène Gigout (1844–1925), composer and organist José Melchor Gomis (1791–1836), Spanish Romantic composer Edmond de Goncourt (1822–1896), author/publisher, brother of Jules (patron of the Prix Goncourt) Jules de Goncourt (1830–1870), author/publisher, brother of Edmond and buried in the same grave. Also patron of the Prix Goncourt 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 Fromental Halévy (1799–1862), composer Heinrich Heine (1797–1856), German poet Fanny Heldy (1888–1973), Belgian soprano Jacques Ignace Hittorff (1792–1867), architect François-André Isambert (1792–1857), lawyer, historian, and politician Daniel Iffla (1825–1907), Jewish philanthropist and financier 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), general, military author Friedrich Kalkbrenner (1784–1849), pianist, composer Miecislas Kamieński, a Polish soldier who was a volunteer in the French Army and was killed in the Battle of Magenta, mentioned because the statue by Jules Franceschi 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 Slavko Kopač (1913–1995), Croatian-French painter, sculptor and poet Eugène Labiche (1815–1888), dramatist Dominique Laffin (1952–1985), actress Charles Lamoureux (1834–1899), violinist Jean Lannes (1769–1809), Marshal of France (heart-burial only, the body is in the Pantheon) Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836–1911), painter Margaret Kelly Leibovici (1910–2004), "Miss Bluebell", Irish dancer Frédérick Lemaître (1800–1876), actor Pauline Leroux (1809–1891), dancer Élisabeth Leseur (1866–1914), mystic José Yves Limantour (1854–1935) Mexican Secretary of Finance Emma Livry (1842–1863), ballet dancer Édouard Lucas (1842–1891), mathematician Aimé Maillart (1817–1871), composer Henri Meilhac (1830–1897), dramatist Mary Marquet (1895–1979), actress Victor Massé (1822–1884), composer Auguste de Montferrand (1786–1858), architect José María Luis Mora (1794–1850), Mexican politician Gustave Moreau (1826–1898), symbolist painter Jeanne Moreau (1928–2017), actress Aimé Morot (1850–1913), academic art painter Henri Murger (1822–1861), novelist Musidora (1889–1957), (Jeanne Roques) actress/director/writer Vaslav Nijinsky (1890–1950), ballet dancer Suzanne Noël (1878–1954), first female plastic surgeon in the world. 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 Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880), French composer of German descent Georges Ohnet (1848–1919), writer Harriet Osborne O'Hagan (1830–1921), Irish portrait artist Théophile-Jules Pelouze (1807–1867), chemist Isaac Péreire (1806–1880), financier Jacob Rodrigues Péreire (1715–1780), educator Francis Picabia (1879–1953), painter Alphonsine Plessis (1824–1847), La Dame aux Camélias Patrick Pons (1952–1980), motorcycle racer Pierre Alexis Ponson du Terrail (1829–1871), novelist William Didier-Pouget (1864-1959), painter 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) Juliette Récamier (1777–1849), socialite and woman of letters Suzanne Reichenberg (1853–1924), actress Salomon Reinach (1858–1932), archaeologist Ernest Renan (1823–1892), writer (buried in the Ary Scheffer grave) 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. Julie Rodde (1818–1900), French writer, poet and journalist. Hilda Roosevelt (1881–1965), opera singer, daughter of Cornelius Roosevelt (1847–1902) Endre Rozsda (1913–1999), surrealist painter 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 Cornélia Scheffer (1830–1899), sculptor and designer Helen G. 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 Marie Taglioni (1804–1884), ballerina Ludmilla Tchérina (1924–2004), dancer, actress and painter Ambroise Thomas (1811–1896), opera composer Armand Toussaint (1806–1862), sculptor Jean-Pierre Travot (1767–1836), general Constant Troyon (1810–1865), painter François Truffaut (1932–1984), French New Wave filmmaker and director 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 René Waldeck-Rousseau (1846–1904), politician Walenty Wańkowicz (1799–1842), painter Georges-Fernand Widal (1862–1929), bacteriologist Émile Zola (1840–1902), author (original site, moved to the Panthéon in 1908). The Zola family grave is still there, with Émile's name on it. Gallery See also Saint-Vincent Cemetery in Montmartre List of burial places of classical musicians List of tourist attractions in Paris References External links Official website Montmartre Cemetery at Find a Grave Cimetiere de Montmartre (in French) Links and Images Collection of resources Google Maps Written in Stone – Burial locations of literary figures. Montmartre cemetery information In English Photos of Montmartre Documenting funerary statuary in Paris cemeteries; on pariscemeteries.com