Paris City Hall offers a rare opportunity to be buried among some of the most celebrated artists in history. All it will take is a little luck, a few thousand euros and a desire to wipe the dust off the dilapidated tombstone.

Wednesday was the deadline to apply for a drawing to buy a burial plot in one of the city’s iconic cemeteries.

The winners will get the chance to restore the forgotten and overgrown grave.

In return for the renovation work, they will be able to purchase the right to a burial plot in the cemetery.

Paris cemeteries attract visitors

Père-Lachaise Cemetery is one of the most famous burial sites in Paris — and one of the most famous cemeteries in the world. Along with Montmartre in the north and Montparnasse in the south, it is one of the three largest cemeteries in the city.

Some of the famous names buried at Père-Lachaise include playwright Oscar Wilde, Doors singer Jim Morrison and composer Frédéric Chopin.

Paved paths wind around the cemetery, with approximately 70,000 graves set on a hill in eastern Paris, attracting tourists as well as mourners – more than three million people visit the cemetery each year.

Writers Jean-Paul Sartre and Susan Sontag are among those buried at Montparnasse Cemetery.

The painter Edgar Degas and the writer Émile Zola are buried in the Montmartre cemetery.

City officials have identified 30 graves in need of repair – 10 in each of the three cemeteries.

Burial space at a price in Paris

In Paris, the families of the dead – not the city authorities – are responsible for the maintenance of tombstones.

Over time, some resting places become abandoned, with tombstones crumbling and inscriptions overgrown.

New burial sites are nearly impossible to find in historic cemeteries, and cemeteries within Paris city limits have been nearly full since the early 20th century, according to the mayor’s office.

Paris authorities have said that calling on the public to clean up headstones is a “compromise” between respecting the dead and giving Parisians the chance to be buried in their city.

The lottery draw, which is currently limited to residents of the French capital, is scheduled to take place later in January.

Registration costs 125 euros (about 200 Cdn), and the winners will have to pay 4,000 euros (about 6,400 Cdn) to secure a tomb to maintain.

Those who are selected have six months to restore the allocated dilapidated tomb – working with authorized masons – after which they will be able to buy their own grave.

Burial plots will cost about $28,000 for permanent rights.