Louis LUCIPIA
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Journalist, Communard, president of the Paris Municipal Council.
Lucipia wrote articles for Le Cri du peuple during the weeks of the Paris insurrection, and signed the Affiche rouge of January 1871. Sentenced to death, pardoned, deported to New Caledonia, he did not return until 1880. His career then resumed, up to the presidency, in 1899, of the Paris Municipal Council: a former Communard at the head of the very institution he had fought.
The story
Born at Nantes in 1843, Louis Lucipia wrote for Le Cri du peuple through the weeks when Paris rose: an active man of the Commune, he signed the red placard, the Affiche rouge, of 6 January 1871.
Sentenced to death when the Commune fell, he was reprieved and deported to New Caledonia. He did not come home until 1880, nine years after the rising.
His political career then began again: in 1899 he became president of the Paris municipal council — as high as the institutions went for a former Communard. He died in 1904.
The grave
A bronze bust signed Jean Boucher and dated 1904, the year of his death, on a monument raised three years later by public subscription, on the avenue Aguado. The inscription stacks four presidencies one below the other: “Président du Conseil Général de la Seine, 1896”, “Président du Conseil Municipal de Paris, 1899”, “Vice-président des journalistes républicains” and “Président du Grand Orient” — the Seine general council, the Paris city council, the republican journalists and the Grand Orient. His widow, who died in 1931, joined him there; the Grand Orient de France foundation had the monument restored in 2016.
On site, do not miss
A bronze bust signed Jean Boucher, on a monument raised by public subscription in 1907 and restored in 2016. The inscription stacks up four presidencies, including that of the Grand Orient.
Visitors' questions
Where is Louis Lucipia's grave at Père-Lachaise?
In Division 89, Avenue Aguado, first row. The monument bears a bronze bust and a long inscription stacking up his offices. Division 89 is also Oscar Wilde's.
Oscar WILDEWhat role did Louis Lucipia play in the Commune?
He was both an active participant and one of its pens. A journalist at Le Cri du peuple, he signed the Red Poster of 6 January 1871. The crackdown that followed sentenced him to death; pardoned, he was deported to New Caledonia and did not return until the amnesty, in 1880.
André Joseph ABRIALWho sculpted the bust of Louis Lucipia?
Jean Boucher (1870-1939), who signed and dated it 1904, the very year of Lucipia's death. The monument that holds it was erected three years later, in 1907, by public subscription, and restored in 2016.
Alphonse BERTILLONWhat does Louis Lucipia's gravestone say?
Four presidencies, engraved one below the other: “President of the General Council of the Seine, 1896”, “President of the Paris Municipal Council, 1899”, “Vice-President of the Republican journalists” and “President of the Grand Orient”. Below follows the note of the monument raised by public subscription in 1907.
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