This guide will direct you in the discovery of the tombs of the communards in the Père Lachaise cemetery. Using the on-board map, find the location of the tombs. For those who want to know more about the history of the Commune, a brief historical overview is also included. All texts are also presented in audio format.
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune of 1871, the Association des Amies et Amis de la Commune publishes a first itinerary dedicated to the revolutionary events that marked the history of the city of lights and the labor movement.
The Père Lachaise cemetery is one of the most emblematic places in the history of the Paris Commune: here the last battles of the bloody week took place, as evidenced by the bullet holes visible on the tomb of Charles Nodier, as well as those of the Communards' wall, sections of which have been transposed into the monument to the victims of the revolutions. Many communards were killed within the cemetery and are buried in mass graves hastily dug by the troops of Versailles.
It was at Père Lachaise that over the years many communards who had survived the repression chose to be buried. Nearly fifty graves of communards have been listed in the cemetery. Among them we find Auguste Blanqui, Léo Frankel, Jules Joffrin, Paul Lafargue (with his wife, Eléonore Marx), Charles Longuet and Jules Vallès. For each of the communards buried, there is a brief notice as well as a link to more complete biographies.
Every year, around May 28, the "Rise to the Wall" is held, the traditional commemoration of the Paris Commune in which all those who claim to be part of the work of the Commune take part.