General Information

Named after what was previously a local village the Passy cemetery was opened in 1820 and it covers a little more than 4 acres. It is the final resting place of some of the city’s most famous and interesting characters. There you may find some of the finest funerary sculptures in Paris.

Additional Information

The Passy Cemetery (Fr: Cimetière de Passy) is located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris on the right bank of the Seine and in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower (the area is traditionally home to many of the city’s wealthiest residents and to a large number of diplomatic embassies).

History: Highlights

Opened in 1820 in the expensive residential and commercial districts of the Right Bank near the Champs-Élysées, by 1874 the small Passy Cemetery had become the aristocratic necropolis of Paris.

History: Explained

In the early 19th century, on the orders of Napoleon I, Emperor of France, all the cemeteries in Paris were replaced by several large new ones outside the borders of the capital. The Montmartre Cemetery was built in the north, the Père Lachaise Cemetery in the east, and the Montparnasse Cemetery in the south. Although the Passy Cemetery was a later addition, it has its origins in the same edict. It is the only cemetery in Paris to have a heated waiting-room. The retaining wall of the cemetery is adorned with a bas relief commemorating the soldiers who fell in the Great War.

Notable interments

As the aristocratic necropolis of Paris, the small Passy Cemetery has become a final resting place for some of the city’s most prominent citizens.

Notable interments explained

Among its most famous residents are:

Bảo Đại (1913–1997), the last Emperor of Vietnam
George, Count Brasov (1910–1931), son of Grand Duke Mikhail Romanov and Princess Brassova (Natalia Sheremetyev-Romanov)
Claude Debussy (1862–1918), composer
Maurice Gamelin (1872–1958), supreme commander of French armed forces 1939–1940
Édouard Manet (1832–1883), realist and Impressionist painter
Berthe Morisot (1841–1895), Impressionist painter
Marcel Renault (1872–1903), industrialist, racing driver, co-founder of Renault motor company