Paris Cemetery Offers Burial Near Famous Figures
Paris's Pere Lachaise cemetery, known as the final resting place of cultural icons like Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Marcel Marceau, and Frédéric Chopin, is now offering an unusual opportunity. Fans can enter a lottery to purchase burial plots near these renowned figures, as well as in other historic cemeteries such as Montparnasse and Montmartre.
Lottery for Burial Plots
The cemetery administration is selling 30 gravestones that are currently in disrepair for €4,000 (around $4,500) each. Buyers are required to restore these monuments and secure the adjacent burial plots for themselves. Due to high demand, the sale will be conducted through a lottery scheduled for January.
Other Historic Cemeteries Included
- Montparnasse: Final resting place of Jean-Paul Sartre and Jacques Chirac.
- Montmartre: Contains the graves of impressionist painter Edgar Degas and Charles-Henri Sanson, the executioner of Louis XVI.
"Offering eternal rest next to the stars is a compromise," say Paris city officials, "that both respects the dead and lets residents be buried within the city, where there is very little room remaining for graves."
This initiative addresses the challenge of limited burial space in Paris while allowing admirers to rest near the stars they admire.
Author's summary: Paris cemeteries launch a lottery to let people buy and restore historic graves, enabling burial near famous figures despite limited city burial space.