The church of San Girolamo della Certosa
Founded in 1334, the Church of San Girolamo della Certosa was the physical and ideological heart of the Carthusian monastery to which it belonged, until the suppression of the monastic building occurred in 1796 and the subsequent reutilization of the edifice as an urban cemetery since 1801.
Bologna: unveiled the plaque in memory of Charles Dickens
Launch of the book "Lo splendore della forma. La scultura negli spazi della memoria"
The conference will take place in the City of Ormea (Cuneo, Italy) at Palazzo Prof. Bassi.
A Soldier’s Story: The photographer
The book "Biography of an Italian Cemetery. The Bologna Certosa" by Gian Marco Vidor is now out
tel. +39 051256011
Public collection in Podgorze | Krakow, Poland
On 1st and 3rd November, the Association PODGORZE.PL, organized its 8th annual public collection in the New Podgorze Cemetery in Krakow for the renovation of historically valuable graves.
EUCEMET exhibition in Avilés
Algunas fotos se presentan incrustadas en una cruz. ::Sergio Lopez |
Vienna cemeteries get a find-a-grave App
Europe's largest cemetery with more than 300,000 graves has unveiled a new smartphone app to help people find their loved ones because so many people were getting lost around the sprawling grounds of the Austrian capital Vienna's Zentralfriedhof.
The new cemetery App will not just be useful for relatives looking for loved ones but also for people doing research into family histories and for cemetery staff looking to find certain graves, said Vienna cemetery spokesman Markus Pinter.
One of the reasons that cemetery officials need to find graves is because they are rented on an initial 10 year contract and after that can be extended for periods of 5 years at a time or more. If anybody fails to pay and fails to act on the requests for payment then they lose the right to rent the grave and it is rented to a new tenant. The grave is then reopened and the body put further down – typically at a depth of around 2.8 m – allowing the new body to be placed in the space above.
And tourists will also find it interesting – interred in the Zentralfriedhof are notables such as Beethoven and Schubert who were moved there in 1888, and Johannes Brahms, Antonio Salieri, Johann Strauss II and Arnold Schoenberg. There is a cenotaph erected in honour of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but he was actually buried in nearby St. Marx Cemetery.
And the new App will be usable on all of the city's 50 cemeteries.
The Zentralfriedhof (German for "Central Cemetery") name is because of its significance as Vienna's biggest cemetery, not of its geographic location, as it is not situated in the outskirts in the outer city district of Simmering.
The musician Wolfgang Ambros honoured the Zentralfriedhof in his 1975 song "Es lebe der Zentralfriedhof" ("Long live the Zentralfriedhof"), marking with it the 100th anniversary of the cemetery's opening.
The Vienna Central Cemetery is not one that has evolved slowly with the passing of time unlike many others. The decision to establish a new, big cemetery for Vienna came in 1863. Around that time, it became clear that – due to industrialisation – the city's population would eventually increase to such an extent that the existing communal cemeteries would prove insufficient. It was expected that Vienna, then capital of the large Austro-Hungarian Empire, would grow to have four million inhabitants by the end of the 20th century, no-one could know that the Empire would collapse in 1918.
The city council therefore decided to assign an area significantly outside of the city's borders and of such a gigantic dimension, that it would suffice for a long time to come. It was decided in 1869 that a flat area in Simmering should be the site of the future Zentralfriedhof.
The official opening of the Central Cemetery took place on All Saints' Day, on 1 November 1874. The first burial was that of Jacob Zelzer and 15 other dead people followed the same day. The grave of Jacob Zelzer still exists today and is located near the administration building at the cemetery wall.
The cemetery spans 2.4 square kilometres with 3.3 million interred here, up to 20-25 burials daily. Cremation is not very popular in Austria, the rate currently hovers around 20 percent.
The App was commissioned after it was found that 30% of people visiting the cemetery had difficulty locating the gravestones that they wanted to find.
Austrian Times
Weblink: http://austriantimes.at/news/Travel/2012-10-31/45130/Vienna_cemeteries_get_a_find-a-grave_App
Bologna Certosa. Guided tours 2012-2013
Mundamortis | Monturque, Cordoba
Bologna Certosa. The shapes of the past, the discovery of the present
Giacomo de Maria, Marte, Palazzo Hercolani, Bologna |
Cemetery of La Carriona (Aviles, Spain)
About the cemetery
Some of the heritage resources worth to be highlighted include important hypogea (an underground chamber) and sculptural works, such as those of families Marqués de San Juan de Nieva, Marqués de Teverga, Castro, Zaldúa Carbajal, María Suárez, Bonifacio Heres and the family of the most important local writer, Armando Palacio Valdés. This set of resources is located in the surroundings of the main avenue at the entrance of the cemetery. The Greek cross chapel, design by Ricardo Marcos Bausá, is also remarkable.
Address
Cemetery of La CarrionaLa Carriona 9,
33401 Aviles,
Spain
Contacts
+34 985 11 16 80+34 985 51 02 35
Opening hours
Monday to Sunday: from 9.00 to 19.00Cemetery of San Amaro (A Coruña, Spain)
About the cemetery
A protected heritage site
In fact, for the next years there’s a Renewal Planning (Plan Director) for changing the cemetery paviment, increasing seriously the green area, renewing the furnishing and improving the accesses for handicapped people.
In the other hand, guided tours will be restablished getting better signs elements for helping visitors to see all the prominent vaults and monuments.
Cemetery stories
Address
Cemetery of San AmaroOrillamar street s / n,
Bj. 15002 A Coruña,
Spain
Opening hours
Monday to Sunday from 09:00 to 18:00The Cemetery of Père Lachaise (Paris, France)
About the cemetery
The global fame and reputation of the cemetery is based on its many characteristics:
- It still conserves material testimonies of its first appearance. The history of the foundation of cemeteries during the 19th century has been marked by the Romantic conception of Brongniart and several European burial sites have emulated it.
- It is the last home of many important figures (from Chopin to Jim Morrison) and shelters memorials of great importance (from the “Mur des Fédérés of the Commune of Paris to memorials of concentration camps). The associated monuments are often realized by the greatest artists of all nations.
- The walk through the place is always different and surprising because of numerous extravagant monuments (the smokestack of the Beaujour grave, the telegraph of the Chappe’s tomb, the Allan Kardec’s Dolmen, etc.) and the beauty of the park.
- Last but not least, the cemetery also covers a complete set of funerary buildings, linked to the history and the organisation of the Mortuary Services, such as the Chapel, the Crematorium, the Columbarium and the Boneyard.
Address
The Cemetery of Père Lachaise8, boulevard de Ménilmontant
75020 Paris
France
Certosa Monumental Cemetery (Bologna, Italy)
Beginnings of the cemetery
Already in 1801, the fence at the north of the cemetery was built and decorated with terracotta sculptures by G. Putti, where a new monumental entrance was opened.
The first works included readjustments of the monastery spaces, whilst from 1833 the construction aspired towards a more complex structure, with exedrae, biaxial elements, symmetries aimed at a greater monumental ambition.
Main parts of the cemetery
Between 1816 and 1834 the main rooms of the Certosa were built: the "Hall of the Graves" (in 1816), the "Arcade of the Graves" (in 1833) and immediately after that the "Gemina Hall" and the "Colombario" - an impressive building with three naves inspired by the Roman thermal architecture. The building of the "Elliptical Hall", a small body to connect the nineteenth and twentieth-century group, dates back to 1834, while in 1860 the previous "Chapel of the Suffrages" was turned into the "Gallery of Angels". Soon after this last one, the "Three-Aisled Gallery" was built, connecting the structures built until then.A different interpretation of the spaces started at the beginning of the twentieth century, according to a more monumental and rhetorical viewpoint: significant examples of this period are the "Sixth Cloister" with the "World War I Memorial", the "Eighth" and the "Ninth Cloister", with the annexed galleries. In 1924, the new entrance was built, at the end of the colonnade, near the Reno canal.
Cemetery artwork
Over a period of two centuries many distinguished architects, painters, sculptors worked there, contributing to its unique charm praised to the skies by all its foreign visitors, among whom we may mention Lord Byron and Charles Dickens, Jules Janin, Giacomo Leopardi, Giosue Carducci and many others.
Important people buried at the cemetery
Culural heritage
Address
Certosa Monumental CemeteryVia della Certosa, 18
40133 Bologna
Italy
Contacts and other info
Phone: +39 051 347592 or +39 051 225583 (Museum of the Risorgimento)www.museibologna.it/risorgimento
www.storiaememoriadibologna.it/certosa
AGM 2012 report
Photo exhibition
Conference at AGM
Students as ASCE guides
Students becoming guides
With the students becoming guides, this represented a very special and different experience for visitors, scholars and the schools.
It all started at Pobrežje Cemetery in April, when Pogrebno podjetje Maribor (the cemetery management company) hosted scholars from 2 schools for the cultural day. Scholars were presented with the history of the cemetery and important people burried there.
With an excellent prepared guidance, scholars immediately became aware that cemetery is not just a place of death and sadness. It was a place of many interesting findings and as they have learned about the important people in the cemetery, scholars were actually learning about themselves and their own history.
For many of them, the experience was so impressive, that they have volunteered for becoming guides themselves. Preparations started and soon, they were guiding their first visitors, during the Week of Discovering European Cemeteries (WDEC).
Guided tour at the AGM on September 14, 2012
After the first experience, the youngest guides worked with their english teachers and improved the guidance techniques and knowledge for their big challenge: guiding the ASCE members and partners through the cemetery at AGM 2012.
As it turned out, they were surprisingly relaxed, practical and interesting. Present members enjoyed the easy guidance where scholars presented the most important people of Maribor with just enough facts and interesting stories.
Importance of the project
The project has many important implications and presents one of the best possible ways to get every European citizen in touch with the heritage, preserved in the cemeteries. Because scholars are not the only ones impressed. Their families, friends and many others are now learning from them about the importance of our cemeteries.
Conference of ASCE
The Laorca Cemetery (Lecco, Italy)
About the cemetery
The cemetery of Laorca is located in the Laorca district, north of Lecco, at the foot of Mount S. Martino, along the Gerenzone River, in the cradle of the Lecchese steel industry.
The environment is highly suggestive. At the foot of the Corno Medale stands a sort of natural amphitheater, created in a rocky spur and fraught with caves and ravines. The site holds the cemetery, several private chapels dating from the late 1800s and early 1900s, the ancient cemetery church of San Giovanni ai Morti and the chapels in Via Crucis.
In the early 1900s the industrial families of the zone chose this site to build their private chapels and monumental tombs in an eclectic style that melds classical features with the imposing features of Art Nouveau.
As a whole, the area of the Laorca Cemetery could be defined as a Sacromonte (a sacred mountain), that was considered for centuries a devotional site. The terraces enjoy a splendid view of the city of Lecco and the lake.
Events at the cemetery
Many events regularly take place at the cemetery. Some of those are, for example, the guided tour and the theatre performance and concert at night that took place in 2012.
Address
The Laorca CemeteryVia Crogno
23900 Lecco
Italy
Basic Information
Graves: 700Private chapels: 14
The Monumental Cemetery of Lecco (Lecco, Italy)
About the cemetery
Based on a project by the engineer Enrico Gattinoni, the Monumental Cemetery of Lecco was inaugurated in 1882.
The fields designated as municipal burial grounds are flanked on three sides by private chapels, all joined by a walkway.
The lovely neo-gothic portico is an elegant exception to the dominating neoclassical style of the funerary architecture. On the far side, an octagonal oratorio stands at the center topped by a pavilion vault. In 1901 the entrance atrium and facade (by engineer Cesare Mazzocchi) was built in the Art Nouveau style.
An open-air museum
A wealth of sculptures commissioned in the late 1800s and early 1900s by acclaimed artists adorn the area, artists whose works can be found in the piazzas and cemeteries of Lecco and throughout Lombardy. Some of them are: F. Confalonieri, G. Branca, E. Bazzaro, C. Da Nova, L. Broggi, D. Barcaglia, P. Clerci, E. Agnati, R. Lainati, M.Vedani, A. Montegani, G. Castiglioni, F. Modena, L.Panzeri.
In the late 1900s, R. Rui, R. Piter, and P. Atchugarry worked beside such artists, Lecchese by adoption, as G. Mozzanica, R. Pedroli, G. De Candido, L.Milani, F. Simoncini, who sought infinite plastic, iconographic and material variations within the area of classic traditions.
Events at the cemetery
Many events regularly take place at the cemetery. One such is a guided tour and concert on the theme "Female figure", which took place in 2012.
Address
Monumental Cemetery of LeccoVia Giuseppe Parini 29
23900 Lecco
Italy
Basic information
Surface: 20.000 m2Graves: 2500
Private chapels: 84