The discreet Cimetière du Calvaire in Montmartre is more interesting than it seems. The smallest cemetery in Paris, but also the oldest cemetery in Paris, this turnip field on the Butte almost never reveals its mysteries... Do you want to come in?
Hidden behind the impressive Porte de la Résurrection, a bronze work by Tomasco Gismondi, the Calvaire Cemetery is a truly unusual sight to see in Paris. Once you've closed the door behind you, Montmartre and its tourists seem far away. There's a very special calm in the 600 m2 setting. A mere 85 tombs stand as best they can under the benevolent gaze of the bell tower ofSaint-Pierre de Montmartre church.
Created in 1688, enlarged in 1697 and closed during the Revolution less than a century later, it reopened in 1801. When the Sacré Coeur was built in 1875/1876, Merovingian sarcophagi were discovered on its current site! The oldest cemetery in Paris may well be older than you think. When I told you that the Calvaire cemetery still had many secrets in its tombs...
Among its famous residents, you can try to decipher the faded handwriting of some of Montmartre's most famous figures. These include the Debray family, the millers behind the Moulin de la Galette, Félix Desportes, the first mayor of Montmartre (1790), and Christophe Caires de Blazère, the parish priest of Saint-Pierre church, to whom we owe the opening of our present-day Rue Lepic.
All these evocations and anecdotes have made you want to tread the wild grasses of this unusual Paris cemetery, and rightly so. Unfortunately, the Calvaire cemetery only revealed its mysteries on November 1st and during the Journées du Patrimoine. Since the Covid 19 pandemic, alas, it has hardly welcomed any more visitors. But maybe that's about to change, isn't it? We certainly hope so!
Dates and Opening Time
Starts September 1, 2017
Location
Cimetière du Calvaire
2 Rue du Mont-Cenis
75018 Paris 18
Access
Abbesses metro station (line 12)
Prices
Free
Official website
www.paris.fr
