Père Lachaise Cemetery combines burial grounds with landscaped paths, monuments, and quiet overlooks. Opened in 1804 as the Cemetery of the East, it was designed as a place for both remembrance and promenade beyond the old city.
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The winding lanes and trees make Père Lachaise feel like a garden, but its creation addressed a serious urban problem. At the end of the eighteenth century, crowded churchyard cemeteries in Paris were closed for public health reasons.
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- Père Lachaise opened in 1804 as the Cemetery of the East.
- The site had previously been a Jesuit estate known as Mont-Louis.
- Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart designed the landscaped cemetery.
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