Cemeteries had been banned inside Paris in 1786 on the grounds they presented a health hazard. As more cemeteries began to be built closer to businesses and populous, The was established by Napoleon I in 1804. At the time of its opening, the cemetery was considered to be situated too far from the city and attracted few funerals. However, this backfired via an administration marketing strategy which moved the remains of La Fontaine, Molière, Pierre Abélard and Héloïse. After this, people began clamouring to be buried next to the famous and within only a few years Père Lachaise went from containing a few dozen permanent residents to more than 33,000. Today there are over 300,000 bodies buried there, and many more in the columbarium, which holds the remains of those who had requested cremation.
Words cannot describe the beauty of this cemetery. Its romantic
