Death, one of the only inevitables that we face in our lives. Every living creature is going to die at some point (unless you’re a Turritopsis dohrnii jellyfish) it’s just a matter of when that inevitable catches up to you. As preservationists, we have seen how the “traditional” (heavily influenced by Christianity’s belief systems) way death is handled in American society. Cemetaries, burial grounds, and grave yards have been apart of our land use history since literally ever. So when discussing it in Paris over these last two weeks got me thinking- what is or is not appropriate in these areas, and why?
On July 10th, we visited the Père Lachaise. The most famous cemetery in Paris and is such a large cog in the machine that keeps the city running. Thousands of people are buried there, famous and not, with some of the most stunning grave stones I have ever seen. Here’s usually where someone would show you pictures of said grave stones…except I didn’t take any.
Gates at the Père Lachaise.
When walking through Père Lachaise, I felt incredibly uncomfortable gawking at the burial sights of individuals I will never meet nor have a deep personal connection with. It felt extremely disrepectful to me. This is a monument to someone that their loved ones are using to honor their memory, and to have a stranger photograph their loss for the aesthetic or educational purposes doesn’t sit quite right with me. All symbology and facts we learned on this visit could be visualized with drawings or simple notes. However, this is my opinion and I did not mind the other students in the group taking photos.
We visited the Catacombs this past Thursday, the 25th. The feeling I got there was vastly different to the one I got in Père Lachaise. I felt okay taking photographs and admiring the stacks of bones all around me. So, why did I feel okay here, but not the cemetery? I believe that it’s the differing presentation and how these places are displayed to the public.
Père Lachaise is a working cemetery that is actively accepting the newly deceased until their loved ones can no longer support their burial spot. Both old and new deaths are being honored there. While in the Catacombs, yes there are identification markers about where in the city the bones were retrieved from, but all sense of personality has been removed. This is a tourists museum where the exhibition is the bones of millions of past Parisians complete with a gift shop. We know only the area in which they were originally laid to rest and the approximate years of death. There is no connection to possibly desecrate here. They’re all just dead, rather than dead people with loved ones cherishing their memories at their burial sights.
I think that feeling can be reflected in thr treatment of these areas. At the Père Lachaise, there was hardly any graffiti, and I’m sure if any major issues arose, they would be taken care, or at least reported. While at the Catacombs, there were signatures everywhere. Love notes on walls. Stickers littering the vents and pillars. The public loves to make their mark there, even though it is the final resting place of millions. I believe its because there is no sense of “these are peiple who had their own lives and people who cherished them”. While the cemetery can’t get away from that, not that it would have a reason to.
It just interests me how simply removing a name strips all sense of possible disrespect, even in myself. The Catacombs are commodifying death to a very successful degree. While the Père Lachaise has the main focus on just being a place to be laid to rest. These intentions heavily weighed on me, personally, as I chose what was and was not in terms of which actions were deemed acceptable.