The significance of cemeteries
Years ago, when we tried to transform cemeteries into cultural venues that deserve to be preserved, respected, and visited, we claimed that:
- Cemeteries are history: We will find our past reflected there.
- Cemeteries are art: In the time of splendor of these places, the main artists of the time left a sample of their art there.
- Cemeteries are memory: It is there where we can find many of our references.
And we can add that Cemeteries are respect, silence, reflection, peace, poetry, nature, and much more.
Achievements of ASCE
Together and thanks to everyone's work during these 20 years we have achieved the objective for which our association was founded - European Cemeteries are visited and their heritage recognized, while remaining places of remembrance and respect for the people who rest there.
Today, our funerary precincts are included in the cultural tours of many cities. I would dare to say that they are recognized as open-air museums, and they have lost their classification as only funerary places where we experience sadness.
We can say with great satisfaction that we have managed to get European citizens to visit their cemeteries, discover the beauty of these places, and walk around them enjoying the innumerable stories that they reveal to us.
This rapprochement between the city and the Cemetery has helped on many occasions in the restoration and conservation of cemeteries, as well as in enhancing the value of the works it contains.
ASCE 20th anniversary
On ASCE turning 20 years old, I want to congratulate all the members of our Association - those who form it now and all those who have been in it in the past and who contributed to enlarging and consolidating it.
I can't close this writing without thanking ASCE for the opportunities it gave me, to meet great people, travel to new cities, develop projects, in which I still believe, that served to unite us and helped to put our Cemeteries in their rightful place.
Congratulations to all!
Maria Luisa Yzaguirre
former ASCE president