Carved with its flame pointing downwards, it symbolises a life that has gone out. What object is this?
The answer
The inverted torch, its flame pointing downwards, is one of the most common funerary symbols: it represents a life going out, while suggesting, when the flame remains visible, that something endures beyond death.
This question belongs to the “Symbols and Allegories” series of the Père-Lachaise quiz: ten questions, a story behind every right answer.