Adolphe Thiers, historian and politician born in 1797, took the head of the executive power in February 1871. It was he who negotiated peace with Bismarck, then had Paris retaken from the insurgents of the Commune, at the cost of twenty to thirty thousand dead according to the estimates. Elected President of the Republic the same year, he fell in 1873, judged too republican. His chapel is the largest in the cemetery: one hundred and fifty-two square metres.
The story
Adolphe Thiers was born in Marseille on 15 April 1797. Historian of the Consulate and the Empire, journalist, minister under Louis-Philippe, he was one of the steadiest political figures of the century, and hostile to the Second Empire from 1852 on.
Head of the executive in February 1871, he negotiated peace with Bismarck and ran into an insurgent Paris. The retaking of the city in May was done on his order: Bloody Week cost, by the various estimates, between six thousand and thirty thousand lives — the highest figures, long accepted, are now being revised downwards.
Elected President of the Republic in August 1871, he organised the payment of the war indemnity and the clearing of French soil, then fell in May 1873 before a monarchist Assembly that found him too republican.
He died at Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 3 September 1877. A million Parisians, so it is said, followed the funeral: the infant Republic burying its founder, six years after the repression.
His chapel in Division 55 is the largest private grave in the cemetery. The Communards' Wall stands a few hundred metres away, in Division 76 — Père-Lachaise holds both monuments to the same week of May 1871.
The grave
The largest private funerary chapel in Père-Lachaise: one hundred and fifty-two square metres, to plans by the architect Aldrophe. The sculptor Henri Chapu — the one of the monument to Marie d'Agoult and the bust of Barbedienne — signed a bronze high relief there entitled “Le Patriotisme”; inside is “L'Immortalité” by Antonin Mercié. His wife Élise, née Dosne, and his sister-in-law Félicie Dosne rest there with him. One detail catches the eye on a pilaster: the engraved date, “MDCCCVXXVII”, is not valid Roman notation — one expected MDCCCLXXVII, 1877. The error remains on the largest grave in the cemetery.
On site, do not miss
The high relief “Le Patriotisme” by Chapu, then the pilaster and its impossible Roman date: MDCCCVXXVII.
Visitors' questions
Where is Adolphe Thiers's grave?
In Division 55, Avenue de la Chapelle, first row. It is the largest private funerary chapel in Père-Lachaise, a hundred and fifty-two square metres, impossible to miss from the alley.
The Communards' WallHow far is his grave from the Communards' Wall?
Only a few hundred metres: the chapel is in Division 55, the Wall in Division 76. The cemetery thus holds the two monuments of the same week of May 1871 — to the man who ordered the repression, and to its victims.
Auguste BlanquiWho sculpted his chapel?
Henri Chapu, author of the bronze high relief “Le Patriotisme”, to plans by the architect Aldrophe. Inside stands “L'Immortalité” by Antonin Mercié, the sculptor of the bronzes on Paul Baudry's grave.
Paul BaudryIs there an engraved mistake on the chapel?
Probably: one pilaster reads “MDCCCVXXVII”, a sequence of Roman numerals that does not form a valid date. The intended reading is MDCCCLXXVII, that is 1877, the year of his death. The error was never corrected.
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