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Père Lachaise Cemetery: Exploring the Parisian Necropolis with Anaïs Grateau
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The largest cemetery in Paris, and certainly one of the most beautiful resting places in the world, Père Lachaise is a true open air sculpture museum. Explore the fascinating history of the cemetery, meet its most famous residents, learn about funerary art, and enjoy deliciously gruesome anecdotes told by a French art historian.
Created in 1804, Père Lachaise is way more than a cemetery and the everlasting home of Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, and Frédéric Chopin. It is also one of the most atmospheric and eerie places to visit while in the French capital. In this lecture, we will start with a brief history of funeral practices in France and a presentation of the circumstances that led to the creation of this burial site of a completely new kind. Indeed, for the first time in history, a graveyard became a place of promenade, where the living and the dead could coexist in harmony. While we will of course have a look at some of the most visited graves in the cemetery, we will also examine common funerary iconography and see how it tells us incredible stories about those who lie beneath.
Anaïs Grateau is a French art historian now living in the U.S. She graduated from the Ecole du Louvre and worked as a curatorial assistant and as a guide for Context in Paris for many years. Since moving to Pittsburgh in 2015, she has taught art history, designing classes reflecting her areas of interest and expertise: modern and contemporary art, the representation of imaginary creatures in art, as well as the depiction of death in painting and sculpture. She is now the Preservation Coordinator for Archives and Special Collections at the University of Pittsburgh.
Not suitable for children under age 13 (sensitive content).
60 minutes
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I've been a constant visitor to France but never managed to get to the cemetery. But the passion and Anais Grateau's intimacy with the site gave it a great energy. I liked the graves she selected that had an historic and above all, artistic context.
This class was totally detailed, expertly presented. Anais Grateau so professional. I could watch again and again.
A great selection of impressive tombs!
Nothing could be as wonderful as actually being in Paris, but this came close. Anais Grateau was excellent and confirmed the outstanding reputation of Context tours. This was one of the few areas in Paris I have not yet personally toured, and this was the next best thing to being there. I learned a lot, and the time flew by.