Columbarium and crematorium


The Père-Lachaise crematorium-columbarium is an architectural complex comprising France's first crematorium and a columbarium.

The 19th-century building, designed by the architect Jean Camille Formigé, is located inside the Père-Lachaise cemetery. It has been listed as a historic monument since 1995.

On 21 May 1804, the cemetery, then located on the territory of the former commune of Charonne, was officially opened. Then, in 1859, the commune of Charonne became part of the city of Paris, forming part of the 20th arrondissement.

In 1883, the Paris City Council asked the architect Jean Camille Formigé to build a crematorium. Construction of the building lasted from 1887 to 1908. Initially limited by the ordinance of 28 July 1885 to the incineration of hospital waste, the building was later dedicated to the cremation of corpses, permitted by the law of 15 November 1887. The first cremation in France took place on 30 January 1889 at the Père-Lachaise crematorium.

The ashes of a certain number of Communards were removed as a result of the end of their burial plots, but we have nevertheless included them in this collection to preserve their memory.

Paul Émile Bouchet, "Brutus" (1840 - 1915)

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Paul Émile Bouchet, "Brutus"

Columbarium (N-SO) case 6136

He was a lawyer. Very close to Gaston Crémieux (shot in Marseille on 30 November 1871), he supported the Marseille Commune. He was sentenced to 3 months in prison, then acquitted, but disbarred. Elected as a member of parliament, he sat on the extreme left.

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Henri Brissac (1826 - 1906)

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Henri Brissac (dessin apparu dans le Cri du Peuple, le 18-09-1885)

Columbarium (S-NE) box 2184

Writer and journalist. During the Commune, he was secretary of the Executive Commission. On 1 May, he became secretary of the Comité de salut public. Sentenced to forced labour in New Caledonia, he returned to Paris in 1879 and became a bookseller.

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Emmanuel-Jean-Jules Chauvière (1850 - 1910)

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Portrait d'Emmanuel Chauvière par Marius

Columbarium case 2655 (ashes removed)

Accountant. He was sentenced several times during the Second Empire. During the first siege, he was incorporated into the 82nd battalion  as a sniper. He fought under the orders of General Duval on the Chatillon plateau. He was arrested on 4 April and sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment. He was elected town counselor in 1888 and deputy in 1893.

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Louis Simon Dereure (1838 - 1900)

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Simon Dereure

Columbarium box 1262 (ashes removed)

Shoemaker, member of the 1st International. Deputy mayor of the 18th arrondissement during the siege. Elected for his arrondissement during the Commune, he took part in the commissions justice, and was civil commissioner to Drombrowski. He voted with the majority for the Comité de salut public. He fought on the barricades. Sentenced to death in absentia, he went into exile in Switzerland and then New York.

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Jean-Baptiste Dumay (1841 - 1926)

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Jean-Baptiste Dumay (dessin apparu dans Le Radical, 3 octobre 1889)

Columbarium (NE-N) Case 5562

Mechanic-turner at Schneider in Le Creusot. Member of the 1st International. Appointed deputy mayor of his commune, he was defeated in the legislative elections of 8 February 1871. He supported the Paris Commune and on 26 March proclaimed the Creusot Commune, which was suppressed the next day. Sentenced to forced labour, he fled to Switzerland. Elected deputy for Belleville (1889-1893), he then became manager of the Paris labour exchange.

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Maurice Lachatre (1814 - 1900)

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Maurice Lachatre

Columbarium case 1160 (ashes removed)

Lachastre (Baron de) Claude, Maurice, or LACHATRE Maurice, an anticlerical publisher of libertarian books. He was a friend of Proudhon. Sentenced in Draguignan for opening a school without authorisation. Founded a bank in 1839. Played an active role as a delegate to the democratic electoral committee in Paris in 1848. His château d'Arbana, bought in 1846 in Gironde, was used as a "model community", with a bank, a mutual fund, two schools and a dispensary. Contributed to Félix Pyat's newspaper "Combat" during the siege of 1870-71, then to "Le Vengeur". Towards the end of his life, La Châtre drew closer to the anarchists and, around 1894, launched his Dictionnaire-journal, a "work of democratic and social propaganda" that was largely posthumous. He was the first French publisher of Karl Marx's Capital.

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Hippolyte Prosper-Olivier Lissagaray (1838 - 1901)

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Hippolyte Prosper Olivier Lissagaray

Columbarium case 1385 (ashes removed)

Literary entertainer, socialist republican journalist and lecturer. Known and renowned for his "History of the Commune of 1871", in which he took part. He moved to Paris in 1860 and became involved in the struggle against the Empire in 1868. He founded the newspaper "L'Avenir" in Auch. In 1870, together with Rochefort, he founded the newspaper " La Marseillaise ". In 1871, he took part in 18 March as a "simple du rang". He founded "L'Action", in which he denounced the lack of young military leaders, called for the Commune's programme, hoped that the interests of the peasants would be brought into line with those of the workers and that education would be extended to the countryside. His last writings in the "Journal du Peuple": "Au feu maintenant! It's no longer a question of shouting Vive la république, but of living it!

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Jules Martelet (1843 - 1916)

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Paul Martelet

Born in the Marne in 1843, a glass painter, he joined the AIT when he arrived in Paris. Along with Sapia and Rigault, he headed the newspaper La Résistance "a democratic organ in the 14th arrondissement. Having fought in the National Guard during the siege of Paris, he took over the town hall of this arrondissement on 18 March, and administered it during the Commune, of which he was an elected member from 26 March. After the final battles, he escaped to Switzerland and then Belgium. Returning in 1880, true to his ideals, he became a member of the PSOR and set about rebuilding socialism in the 14th arrondissement. He died in the hospice in 1916 and was cremated in Père Lachaise.

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Paule Mink (1839 - 1901)

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Paule Mink, par JM Lopez

Columbarium case 1029 (ashes removed)

Paulina MEKARSKA (MEKARSKI), born in Clermont-Ferrand, campaigned with André LEO and founded the "Société fraternelle de l'ouvrière", a militant feminist organisation. In 1871, as an energetic propagandist, she ran revolutionary clubs in Paris and the provinces, opened a free school at Saint-Pierre church in Montmartre and ran the "Club Saint-Sulpice". She was also a member of the Montmartre Vigilance Committee with Louise Michel.

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Eugène Jean-Baptiste Vigey (1845 -1928)

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Portrait d'Eugène Vigey absent

Born in 1845 in the Côte-d'Or region of France, he worked as a furrier at the Hôtel de Ville during the Commune and fought on the barricades during the Semaine Sanglante, he was the flag-bearer of the "Anciens combattants de la Commune". This great friend of Camelinat died in Paris in 1928.

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