Dalle mummie egizie al cranio di Villella. Musei e resti umani


La Fondazione A. Fabretti ONLUS, in collaborazione con l’Università di Torino, organizza una tavola rotondacon l’obiettivo di promuovere una riflessione approfondita sulla musealizzazione dei resti umani, un tema che negli ultimi mesi ha dato luogo a numerose polemiche.

Moscowa Cemetery & Crematorium (Arnhem, Netherlands)

Moscowa Cemetery & Crematorium (Arnhem, Netherlands)
Moscowa Cemetery & Crematorium lies in delightful surroundings and, aside from being a last resting place, is also popular with walkers.

The origin of the name

Moscowa Cemetery (1873) derives its name from the manor farm of the same name, which is just outside the cemetery. The farm was built in 1847 by Jacob Carel Jan baron van Heeckeren van Enghuizen. He was a military man in heart and soul who liked to name his farms after the military campaigns he undertook while serving in the French army - in this case a campaign to Moscow in 1812 under Napoleon.

Cemetery structure

Moscowa has two chapels. The buildings have the typical pointed form. Entering one of the chapels, you will see towards the end of the walkway an unusual triangular stained glass window comprising some five thousand coloured pieces of glass. The windows, developed by graphic designer Jan P.C. van Doorn, evoke interaction. The pattern is of vegetation rising from the ground, dominated by horizontal and vertical lines.

Moscowa opened a crematorium in 1974. The site features a beautiful urn garden with a wide variety of memorials, many created by artists from Arnhem and the surrounding area. Ashes may also be interred in or on an existing grave.

A popular walking site

Moscowa currently covers over thirty hectares. The burial park which dates back more than 135 years is characterised by its lovely setting, monumental design and huge diversity of flora. The many unusual conifer trees are an especially striking feature. A wide variety of birds breed at Moscowa, including the Green Woodpecker, the Tawny Owl and the Buzzard, but songbirds are also well represented. In the autumn, there is a wide array of fungi, including the Cauliflower mushroom, Fly Agaric, Bay Bolete and Penny Bun or Porcino. This makes Moscowa not only a last resting place, but also popular with walkers.

Artistic and historical value

There are a multitude of historic and art-historic reasons to take a stroll around Moscowa. There are many very special monuments and tombs signed by artists and sculptors, in all kinds of different materials. Among the more striking in the collection are a truncated obelisk, an intricately embroidered pall over a coffin and an ornately sculpted neo-Gothic cross, but also a monument with great symbolism representing Faith, Hope and Charity, an Art Nouveau memorial and a mausoleum (the only one of its kind).

Address

Moscowa Cemetery & Crematorium
Waterbergseweg 18
6815 AP Arnhem
The Netherlands

Contacts

Tel.: +31 (0)26 445 63 47
Fax: +31 (0)26 445 75 25
E-mail: info@moscowa.nl

Website: www.moscowa.nl

Easter Events @ Glasnevin Museum


To commemorate the 97th anniversary of the Easter Rising Glasnevin Trust is running a series of events over the Holiday period.

The Sant Antoni Abat Cemetery (Alcoy, Spain)

Sant Antoni Abat or Cantagallet Cemetery (Alcoy, Spain)
This interesting cemetery (also known as the Cantagallet Cemetery) is a space of social representation and reflection of the industrial society in Alcoi.

About the cemetery

In 1812 the first open air cemetery outside Alcoi was opened. It is known as the Old Cemetery. It 1885 it was considered to be too close to the city. This fact together with the ravaging epidemics of cholera made it convenient to set up the present premises of Cantagallet or Sant Antoni Abat Cemetery, as a temporary solution.

Later, the decision to acquire a larger plot and to develop a project for a permanent cemetery on that spot was made. The winning project was that by the local engineer Enrique Vilaplana Julià, which was dated August 29, 1889.

Artistic and cultural value of the cemetery

The cemetery became an actual space of social representation, a genuine reflection of the industrial society in Alcoi, by developing different typologies and enclosures as time went by.

The area with greatest wealth and artistic variety in the cemetery is that of the free-standing family or individual vaults, authentic architecture in miniature where diverse artists had considerable creative freedom, and where an evolution of the artistic stylesas is evident - from the most widespread Eclecticism to historicism, revivals, Modernism of Nouveau and Sezession styles and, finally, to examples of Art Déco and Rationalism.

Thanks to these heritage values,  Sant Antoni Abat Cemetery was included in the European Cemeteries Route, which is considered a Cultural Route by the Council of Europe, since 2012.

Points of interests

Sant Antoni Abat Cemetery has not many important personalities buried there, but its attraction is mainly based in the different typologies generated along the time and its social stratification.
  • Common graves: from 1889. They are those which had, at the beginning, the greatest constructive presence in the necropolis, being decorated with small wooden or iron crosses.
  • Niches: from 1893. They are vertical constructions. Some of them house authentic works of art in the reliefs of the tombstones.
  • Grave-niches: from 1893. They are bourgeois constructions, aesthetically similar to the free-standing vaults, but constructed against the wall.
  • Graves of elegant zone: from 1894. They occupy the central part of the common graves’ area, with a variety of styles.
  • Free-standing Vaults: from 1894. They present a wide catalogue of architectural and sculptural styles.
  • Underground Galleries of San Severo, San Fabián and San Antonio: from 1895. Ventilated and illuminated. They were constructed taking advantage of the different levels of the area and economizing on space.
  • Priests’ Enclosure, with public chapel: 1905. Project by Timoteo Briet.
  • Hypogea: from 1909. Attached vaults designed by Timoteo Briet, inspired by the ones of Barcelona’s Montjuïc Cemetery.
  • Civil Cemetery: from 1909. It is highlighted its similarity to an Anglo-Saxon cemetery, with many vegetation and non-Catholic symbolism.
  • Military plot: from 1910. Created because of the Infantry Regiment Quarter that existed in Alcoy at that time.
  • Nuns’ Enclosure: from 1925. For all the congregations of Alcoy.
  • The Monumental Cross: 1939. Projected by José Cortés. It was located, at the end of the Spanish Civil War, in the place initially meant for the cemetery chapel. At present it has lost any political connotation.
  • Columbaria: from 1969. A standard, functional building to save space. It corresponds to the need to place funeral urns of cremations or human rests.
  • Cenotaph: 1990. Built as ossuary and memorial. Inspired by the Woodland Chapel of Stockholm.
  • Ash pit: 2010. New type to hold the ashes from cremations.

Important events taking place at the cemetery

Some guided cultural visits are being organized in the cemetery by the Tourist Info Alcoy as well as by private companies, always with a high number of participants.

Moreover an informative leaflet with a map and interesting places to see at the cemetery has been prepared by the City Council of Alcoy, with the aim to enable people making the route by themselves.

Below, you can watch a short presentation video of the cemetery entitled "Alcoi. Cemetery Sant Antoni Abat: the Sleeping City."



Tourist information

Tourist Info Alcoy
Plaça d’Espanya, 14
03801 Alcoy (Alicante)
Spain

tel +34 965 53 71 55
fax: +34 965 53 71 53
email: alcoi@touristinfo.net

www.alcoyturismo.com