Père-Lachaise is one of the most famous cemeteries in the world and the largest cemetery in the city of Paris. Located in the 20e arrondissement, it is reputed to be the world's most-visited cemetery, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the graves of those who have enhanced French life over the past 200 years. It is also the site of three Great War memorials.
The cemetery takes its name from Père François de la Chaise (1624-1709), the confessor of Louis XIV, who lived in the Jesuit house rebuilt in 1682 on the site of the chapel. The property, situated on the hillside (from which the king, during the Fronde, watched skirmishing between the Condé and Turenne) was bought by the city in 1804, laid out by Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, and later extended.
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