A bit of history: Created from three farms in 1824, the Montparnasse cemetery was originally known as Le Cimetiere du Sud. Cemeteries had been banned from Paris since the shutting down of the Cimetiere des Innocents in 1786 on the fringe of Les Halles food market on the grounds that it presented a health hazard. Several new cemeteries outside of the precincts of the capital replaced all the Parisian ones in the early 19th century, Cimetière de Montmartre in the north, Le Cimetiere Pere Lachaise in the east and Cimetière du Montparnasse in the south. At the heart of the city, and today, sitting in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower , is Cimetière de Passy .
