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Berlioz, together with his two wives Harriet Smithson (†1854) and Marie Recio (†1862), is buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre, along an avenue of the cemetery called after him (Berlioz relates the interment of his wives here in his Memoirs, Postface). For the funeral ceremony which took place on 11 March 1869, see the page Église de la Sainte-Trinité. Mme Martin, Marie Recio’s mother, is also buried in the same tomb. There is a description of the condition of tomb as it was in 1902 by Adolphe Jullien (Journal des Débats, 3 August and 17 August 1902).
We have included in this page scanned images of Berlioz’s tomb as it was in 1887 and in the 1920s. The present monument dates from 1970, and was set up by national subscription at the initiative of Henri Poussigue, in connection with the centenary of the composer’s death in 1969. Berlioz’s remains were scheduled to be removed to the Panthéon in 2003, the year of the bicentenary of his birth, but the project was subsequently cancelled altogether.
Many friends and contemporaries of Berlioz are also buried at Montmartre cemetery. They include Théophile Gautier, Heinrich Heine, Frédérick Lemaître, Adolphe Sax, Horace Vernet, Pauline Garcia Viardot, and Alfred de Vigny, among others.
All the modern photographs reproduced on this page were taken by Michel Austin in December 2000 (except for the last one, in December 2003); all other pictures are in our own collection. © Monir Tayeb and Michel Austin. All rights of reproduction reserved.
This picture is taken from: Hector Berlioz: Sa Vie et ses
Œuvres, by Adolphe Jullien, 1888, Paris: La Librairie de l’Art (in our
collection).
See also The inauguration
of Berlioz’s
funeral monument, published in Le Monde Illustré, 19 March 1887.
This picture is taken from: Hector Berlioz: Sa Vie et ses Œuvres, by Adolphe Jullien, 1888, Paris: La Librairie de l’Art (in our collection).
When Berlioz’s tomb was renovated in 1970 the sign ‘Berlioz’ at the top was transferred to the cemetery in La Côte Saint-André, and placed above the tombs of Berlioz’s parents.
The photo is taken from Ernest Reyer, ‘Hector Berlioz: Biographical notes and personal reminiscences’, in The International Library of Music, 1925. New York: The University Society (in our collection). See also on this site an earlier publication of the same article in 1893.
Berlioz’s tomb, covered with red and yellow flowers, is situated by the first tree on the left.
(Homage)
© Monir Tayeb and Michel Austin for all the pictures and information on this page. This page revised on 1st March 2017.
Copyright notice: The texts, photos, images and musical scores on all pages of this site are covered by UK Law and International Law. All rights of publication or reproduction of this material in any form, including Web page use, are reserved. Their use without our explicit permission is illegal.
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