Situated on the site of quarry pits, the Montmartre cemetery, opened in 1825, has a special significance for Poles. This was even expressed by the cemetery authorities by naming one of the alleys near the main entrance Avenue des Polonais.

Along the avenue are four Polish mass graves with original architectural forms and decoration alluding to national symbolism. They feature, among others, an image of the Polish eagle taking flight, bipartite coats of arms with an eagle and a pennant (the symbol of a united Poland and Lithuania, i.e. the former Republic) and motifs related to the commemoration of the November Uprising, such as scythes and sabres, banners, and the 'Star of Perseverance' with the inscription 'Usque ad finem' (until the end). These tombstones bear the usual names: members of the National Government, Exules Poloni Memoriae Suorum, the Polish Democratic Society.

Collective graves were a manifestation of the collective desire to perpetuate the memory of national events and the figures associated with them. They made it possible to honour people who had made history by sacrificing everything to the national cause, despite the often humble lives they led in exile. In order to create mass graves, perpetual land concessions were purchased in order to collect the remains of those who had died at different times in a tomb. On many occasions, coffins transferred from different places were collected in them, and monuments of original architectural forms were erected over the burials. The originator of this idea was a soldier, a participant in the Ushytsk uprising in Podolia in 1831, Leon Stempowski.