The Piratello Cemetery (Imola, Italy)

The Piratello Cemetery (Imola, Italy)
The 200 years old Piratello Cemetery is one of the seven cemeteries in the city of Imola.

About the cemetery

The Piratello Cemetery was built 3,5km away from the city centre. Back then, that location was chosen to avoid any epidemiological contagion. A plaque located on the arch connecting the Garden-Cloister with the North-West cemetery reminds us that on 29th October 1821 the land designated to become the Cemetery of the City of Imola was blessed. The cemetery then started to be in use on 1st February 1822. Today it reflects the history of the city through its most illustrious people and bears witness to the architectural evolution of the last 200 years.

At the beginning of 1978, a project was drawn up, aiming to enlarge the cemetery eastwards. The first graves were placed in the new part in 1985. The various segments continued to be added with no interruptions within the framework of a single project that was accomplished in 1995. The latest ones can be found south of these structures and were formed between 1999 and 2002. This architectural portion was granted acknowledgement awards and was described in several specialized publications. Several arcades can be found all over the cemetery. The green grassy expanses, the geometrically-cut edges of laurel and the magnificent cedars and cypresses create extremely rich, harmonious and valuable green spaces.

Main parts of the cemetery

The Garden-Cloister is the main and oldest core of the cemetery. This former cloister of the Franciscan monastery is a very evocative place. Under its arcades lie graves of Imola’s noble families with outstanding works of art. The simple inner garden features centuries-old trees.

The Gran Campo (Great Camp) dates back to the seventies of the 19th century and is surrounded by a tall arcade with dome-shaped pavilions. The eastern dead-end pavilion represents the Famedio where popular, well-deserving and donor citizens were buried, as well as the mayors of the town. Here are the graves of very well-known people, such as Giuseppina Cattani and Andrea Costa, whose epigraph engraved on the tombstone that contains his ashes was written by Giovanni Pascoli.

The Monumental Camp, built in 1916, houses the families’ funerary chapels. Access to this area is provided by a wide staircase, on top of which there is the Shrine of the Fallen during the 1st World War. The sculpture of the Victory over the funerary crypt was made by the artist Cleto Tomba. The crypt dedicated to the fallen partisans who joined the Resistance movement during the 2nd World War is located in the southern end of the Monumental Camp, inside a building with arcades and polychrome windows, started before the 2nd World War and finished in 1955. 

Starting from 1944 the occupying German troops arranged the graves of the fallen German soldiers. They stayed here until the winter of 1961/62 when the tombs were moved to the war cemetery at the Futa Pass.

Contacts

Phone: +39 0542 40006
Email: servizicimiteri@areablu.com

Opening hours

Winter time: from 7:00 to 18:30
Summer time: from 7:00 to 19:30

Basic data

Number of graves: 35.411
Cemetery size: 127.887m2
Cemetery type: Municipal and civil

Drapano Cemetery (Argostoli, Kefallonia Island, Greece)

Drapano Cemetery (Argostoli, Kefallonia Island, Greece)
Drapano Cemetery differs from ordinary cemeteries in that it resembles an open-air museum.

About the cemetery

The funerary monuments that adorn the cemetery are of great value and a walk through the cemetery is like a tour in an outdoor gallery. Μarble and stone monuments are works of great Greek sculptors such us Mponanos Georgios, Filippotis Dimitrios, Malakates Iakwvos and others, as well as of important local stonecutters of Kefallonia island.

The Drapano Cemetery has been characterized by the Ministry of Culture as preservable, since it possesses elaborate decoration and consists of works of unique artistic value. Furthermore the cemetery has been classified as a site of natural beauty in need of special state protection.

Basic data

Number of graves: 2859 graves.
Cemetery size: 20.000 m2
Cemetery type: Religious Cemetery

Addres

Drapano Cemetery
City of Argostoli
Kefallonia Island
Greece

Contacts

Niforatos Lukas
Tel: 00302671361037
Email: dim.kin.argostoli@hotmail.gr

Minetos Dionisios
Tel: 00302671362647
Email: dionminetos@gmail.com

Cemetery of Mortorino (San Fiorano, Italy)

Cemetery of Mortorino (San Fiorano, Italy)
The ancient Cemetery of Mortorino is halfway between a burial ground and a temple.

About the cemetery

In 1684, Count Giorgio Pallavicino Triulzio donated a plot next to the church to be destined for a cemetery. The cemetery was then  built in 1765 by Vincenzo Ghisalberti, rector of the church. The cemetery is delimited by a side-wall with only two windows with wrought-iron grating. The inner space is square-shaped and it is surrounded by a four-sided portico with five spans each side. It is a place where faith, art and pity are combined in perfect harmony.

It is a symmetrical and harmonious environment and the walls are magnificently decorated with a fresco of Via Crucis (the fourteen Stations of the Cross), made by Giovanni Battista Ronchelli, a painter from Varese. Under the main altar there is also a fresco reproducing Saint Fiorano and the souls in Purgatory.  Beside the entrance, a name can be read - Cannon Cavalier. That could be the architect's name.

During 1859 the Austrian troops stayed at the cemetery and seriously damaged the site. In 1883 pictures of Via Crucis, gift of Luigia Sfondini, were saved in parish church. In 1986, the restoration of the site began. Those pictures needed more than one painter to do the reconstruction and Ronchelli's style appears evident in the central figures. Faces are deeply expressive-and sculpted by the light; some lines call Tiziano to mind and one of the paintings reminds of Michelangelo's “Pietà”.

Cemetery Address

Cemetery of Mortorino
Via Giorgio Pallavicino 1
26848 San Fiorano (LO)
Italy

Tourist information

Municipality of San Fiorano
Piazza Roma 1
26848 San Fiorano (LO)

Tel: +39 037753720
Email: info@comune.sanfiorano.lo.it
comune.sanfiorano@pec.regione.lombardia.it

Website: www.comune.sanfiorano.lo.it

Photos.

You can see photos of the cemetery in this album.

AGM 2016 report

On October 6th, the Annual General Meeting took place at Dublin castle, Dublin.

AGM 2016 Conference materials

Conflict, Memorialization = Reconciliation.

On the streets of culture:times, spaces, subjects, writings

A seminar between experimentation and interdisciplinarity.

Symbols Exhibition in Maribor

Learn about symbols in cemeteries in the exhibition at Vetrinjski dvor mansion.

Exhibition of old and contemporary photographs

Opened on 2nd November at the Urban Center few steps away from the Duomo in Milano.