Mur des Fédérés

You are approaching the Mur des Fédérés, or the Wall of the Communards, tucked away in the southeastern corner of the Père Lachaise Cemetery. This rough masonry wall stands as the final site of resistance for the Paris Commune, a radical government that briefly seized control of the city in eighteen seventy-one. In the waning hours of May twenty-eighth, the last of the Commune fighters were cornered within the cemetery grounds by troops sent from Versailles. They were lined up against this specific section of the perimeter wall and executed by firing squad. The bodies of these one hundred and forty-seven men, women, and youths were then cast into a common grave at the base of the stone. This event marked the final, violent conclusion of what is historically known as the Bloody Week, a period of intense urban combat that effectively crushed the uprising.