Aux Morts

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Aux Morts (To the Dead) by Paul-Albert Bartholomé, 1899
Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, (Père Lachaise Cemetery)
Quartier du Père-Lachaise, 20th arrondissement
Paris, July 2014

“Behind the Aux Morts (To the Dead) monument sculpted by Paul-Albert Bartholomé lies an ossuary of the bones of Parisians from cemeteries all over the city, a smaller kind of modern-day catacombs. Although the monument is well known, it is not general knowledge that it is also an ossuary, and its doors usually remain closed and locked to the public. When it became overcrowded recently, the bones were removed for cremation and returned to the ossuary after the incineration process. In the Père Lachaise ossuary, efforts are made to store bones and ashes in separate boxes.” (Père Lachaise Cemetery, Wikipedia)