Montmartre Cemetery

During the 1700s, Paris faced grave overcrowding issues in its cemeteries, leading to high funeral expenses and poor sanitary conditions in nearby areas. By the 1780s, the city had to close the Cimetière des Innocents and prohibit burials within Paris. In response, four new cemeteries were established outside the city's boundaries in the early 1800s: Montmartre in the north, Père Lachaise in the east, Passy in the west, and Montparnasse in the south.

Montmartre Cemetery was opened on January 1, 1825, originally named le Cimetière des Grandes Carrières (Cemetery of the Large Quarries), reflecting its location in a former gypsum quarry. This quarry, once a mass grave during the French Revolution, is situated below street level, west of the Butte near Rue Caulaincourt in Place de Clichy. Its main entrance was built on Avenue Rachel under Rue Caulaincourt.

Today, Montmartre Cemetery is a renowned tourist spot, known for being the final resting place of numerous celebrated artists who lived in the Montmartre area. A list of these notable individuals can be found below.

The Montmartre Cemetery covers about 11 hectares, which is the same area as the Batignolles Cemetery, making it jointly the third largest intra-muros cemetery after Père-Lachaise and Montparnasse. Today, the Montmartre Cemetery has more than 20,000 graves, and approximately 500 people are buried there each year.

Uniquely in France, it is spanned by the Caulaincourt bridge, a metal bridge built after multiple controversies in 1888.

Dalida's tomb, with its life-size sculpture and golden rays, is the most visited and the most flowered in the cemetery.

The following notable personalities are buried at the Montmartre Cemetery:

• André-Marie Ampère (1775–1836): A physicist whose name is immortalized in the unit of electric current, the ampere.
• Hector Berlioz (1803–1869): A renowned composer, known for his contributions to the Romantic musical period.
• Edgar Degas (1834–1917): An influential French artist famous for his paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings, especially those depicting dancers.
• Dalida (1933–1987): An Egyptian-born Italo-French singer and actress who gained enormous popularity in France and internationally.
• Henri-Georges Clouzot (1907–1977): A French film director, screenwriter, and producer, known for his suspenseful and psychologically complex films.
• Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880): A composer of German descent who played a key role in the development of the operetta.
• Vaslav Nijinsky (1890–1950): One of the most celebrated male ballet dancers of the early 20th century, known for his virtuosity and the intensity of his characterizations.
• Émile Zola (1840–1902): A major French novelist, known for his critical and unflinching portrayal of French society in the 19th century.
• Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904): A painter and sculptor in the style now known as academicism.
• François Truffaut (1932–1984): An influential director and one of the founders of the French New Wave cinema movement.