Description of the attraction
The Montparnasse cemetery, located in the eponymous southern district of Paris, resembles rather not a burial place, but a city park - people walk here, pass freely through the cemetery, "cutting corners". Its size is small, its fame is much more significant.
The cemetery in this part of the city appeared in 1824 and was initially called the South. In the first decades of its existence, it did not stand out in anything special. However, since the end of the 19th century, the Montparnasse quarter, due to the cheapness of life, has become unusually attractive for poor artists, sculptors, and writers. The names of many of them became famous, and the ashes of a world celebrity were already buried in the local cemetery. Soon the cemetery became a prestigious resting place - not only cultural figures, but also famous politicians and scientists began to be buried here.
That is why the list of names carved on the gravestones of Montparnasse is so diverse. The Prime Minister of Iran Shahpur Bakhtiyar, the President of Mexico Porfirio Diaz, the ideologist of Ukrainian independence Simon Petliura, the founder of the largest French automobile company André Citroen are lying nearby. And nearby - mathematician Gustave Coriolis, encyclopedist Pierre Larousse, poet Charles Baudelaire, writers Guy de Maupassant and Jean-Paul Sartre, chess player Alexander Alekhine.
Monuments in the cemetery are often quite unusual. Here is the tombstone over the grave of the inventor of the gas lamp, Charles Pigeon: under this very lamp, on a bronze bed sculpted in every detail, the inventor's wife is sleeping, and Dude himself is reading a book nearby.
The traditions of the cemetery are just as unusual. On the grave of Serge Gainsbourg, "the French Vysotsky", fans of the bard, actor and director bring cigarettes and lighters. In addition, cabbage heads always lie on the tombstone - it is believed that Ginsbourg's head resembled this vegetable.
The cemetery fully plays the role of a city park: here, in good weather, mothers with strollers always walk, clerks from neighboring offices, sitting on benches, snack on sandwiches. The tourists were also taken care of: in the guard house at the entrance you can get a free plan of the cemetery.
