Catholic Cemetery Dubovac (Karlovac, Croatia)

Near Karlovac, under the walls of the Old Town Dubovac, which dates from the 12th century, there is the old Catholic cemetery on Dubovac.

The Company Zelenilo d.o.o.

Zelenilo d.o.o. from Karlovac is a company owned by the City of Karlovac. The company exists and works in the city Karlovac for more than 50 years. It operates with cemteries that are located in the metropolitan area and they are in property of goverment the Karlovac City. For all the visitors of these cemeteries we published, in the year 2007, the monography "Karlovac cemeteries." It can serve as a guide, and is intended for those who are also reading the history of the city at the cemetery. It describes in detail all the graves of famous people, monuments and works of art. Because "with the appearance of the cemetery, the richer and poorer areas are discovering the truth of their taste."

About the cemetery

Near Karlovac, under the walls of the Old Town Dubovac, which dates from the 12th century, there is the old Catholic cemetery on Dubovac. It was founded in the year 1820 in the place which in the 17th and 18th century served for burying the dead from the plague. For the decoration the cemetery was positively impacted by the construction of Mirogoj Cemetery Zagreb. The impact of Mirogoj construction is seen in Karlovac where several families build their tombs so that the outer wall of the operational fence is toward the road while the inner side of the tomb is designed with pilasters and arcades. The turning point in the history of the cemetery is in 1899, when the city government issued "Regulations on the cemetery at Dubovac", and since then burial and cemetery maintenance becomes a concern of the City.

Important monuments

At the entrance to the cemetery there are four first-class architectural monuments. These are the mausoleums of families Vranytzany and Turk, and tombs of families Hoffman and Turkovic. The Vranytzany Mausoleum was built in 1885 and was designed by famous architect Otto von Hofer, while the Turk Mausoleum is the work of Zagreb architect Pound Waldman from 1892. The model for the construction of Hoffman's tomb was a Greek temple. The Turkovic family tomb is the oldest tomb and was built by the famous Karlovac merchant and politician Wenceslaus Turkovic.

The oldest tombstone is a distinguished classical obelisk for Karlovac merchant Mihalj Stipić. On the pedestal there is an epitaph written in Latin, and a kind of Stipić resume.

Among the important monuments worth mentioning are: "The Chapel of All Saints" with a mortuary from 1870, the tombs of mayors of Karlovac, and the grave of writer and "first lady of the Illyrian era", Dragojla Jarnević, along with many graves of other deserving people of Karlovac.

A place of memory

For all those who visit this cemetery, the monuments, the smell of flowers and candles, the sound of trees and birds singing reminds them that this is a place of memory, reflection and encouragement. From trees, the conifers dominate. Evergreens symbolize eternal life and the trees that grow in height are symbols of connecting the Earth with Heaven and the way to eternity.

Contacts

Zelenilo d.o.o.
Put D. Trstenjaka 6
47000 Karlovac
Croatia

Phone: 047/609-920
Website: http://www.zelenilo.hr/

*𝘗𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦: 𝘸𝘸𝘸.𝘻𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘭𝘰.𝘩𝘳

General Cemetery of Valencia (Valencia, Spain)

The cemetery was inaugurated in the morning of Sunday 7th June, 1807, and the first deceased was buried the next day.

History of burials

With Christianity, people got used to bury the dead near churches. At first, the graves were on the outside of the temples and along its walls. As the faithful went to the place to do their religion duties, it was necessary to put these early graveyards under cover of the ravages of time. So, soon the halls and the arcade were built, which were the origin of the chapels where the faithful gathered when they wanted to pray over the graves. This burial ground was joint to the church itself through porches and arcades, until it was shut to separate it from the church building but forming a continuation of the religious center itself.

Cemeteries outside the city walls

The parish burial practice remained in Spain until the second half of the eighteenth century. In 1785 Benito Bails had written a work to stress how detrimental it was for people to keep parish cemeteries within towns. In 1786 the councilor Tomás Pascual de Almunia, representative of the nobility, had also advocated the closure of all cemeteries inside the city walls. The proposal had also the approval of the Faculty of Medicine. It was then Carlos III who would issue a Royal Order, on April the 3rd, 1787, outlawing such custom and ordering the setting-up of cemeteries away from the city, as a measure against previous unhygienic and unhealthy practice.

Beginning of the General Cemetery of Valencia

In Valencia, the law was fulfilled in the nineteenth century with the Proclamation of April 26, 1804, issued by Manager Chief Magistrate Cayetano de Urbina. It was from that moment that truly begins the demolition of the parish cemeteries in Valencia and the creation of a General Cemetery for all its citizens.

The profits from the sale of land from parish cemeteries was used to actual construction of the new cemetery. The project was designed by the city architect Cristóbal Sales, in partnership with fellow architect and scholar Manuel Blasco, and was approved by the Fine Art Academy of San Carlos. The new cemetery was located at the mill land Molí de Tell, along the path of Picassent. Work began in July 1805 and concluded in 1807. The cemetery was inaugurated in the morning of Sunday 7th June, 1807, and the first deceased was buried the next day, using a common grave. A year after the official opening the first 80 tombs were rosen.

Cemetery development

After thirty years of its opening all capacities of the cemetery were exceeded tand fully occupied. That's when first enlargements happened.

In 1846 it was built the first Mausoleum: the one of Juan Bautista Romero, followed by the ones of the family Dotres and White-Llano.

In 1876 a new expansion was approved. Around 1880 the terms to build new tombs and porticoes were adopted. According to the original plans from the 1871, it was decided to use the area of over 15.000 square metres in the current section 3. There are the so-called Gates or Columns Gallery - a gallery formed by 170 robust monolithic columns and Doric capitals. The works, which were completed in 1892, were paid by the profits from the sale of the mausoleum lands.

In 1886 the waiting room was built and in 1907, the Patio de las Palmeras. Architects like Sebastian Monleón, Joaquin Maria Arnau, Francisco Almenar, Gerardo Roig, Vicente Sanchoand Antonio Martorell, designed the mausoleums with renowned sculptors of the era: Mariano Benlliure, Ricardo Boix, Eugenio Carbonell, Carreras and Alfonso Gabino, to name some of them, that along with other professionals, helped to give splendor to the current image of the cemetery.

In following years, the common graves were opened to bury the dead, according to the circumstances of death and the time lived. Epidemics of the Nineteenth Century and especially the Civil War (1936-1939) caused the necessity for this type of burial.

In the decades of the 50’s to 80’s, there is an extensive development of the cemetery. The economic boost and the population growth produced an increase in burials and the emergence of more artistic headstones, which, in turn, introduced a changing image of the cemetery.

In March 1988, following the Mortuary Sanitary Police’s new laws, Municipal Crematorium opened. An Avant-garde building, designed by the architect Fernando Romeu, being surrounded by tall eucalyptus, palms and pines. An evocative Garden of Remembrance for the burial of ashes was allocated in Section 11, composed of four quadrants and a pyramidal mound in the center. One of another recent constructions is the City Funeral Home (2000), a modernist design building planned by architect Jordi Pinyol.

Currently the cemetery is divided into 21 sections, with their quadrants, blocks, letters and numbers, individual in each of the blocks. Section 20th, the most recently built, is located in the southern area of the city near the new river channel, next to the Funeral Home and the administrative offices.

Islamic Cemetery

Following the November 1992 law,  the Islamic Cemetery was constructed by section No. 14 in the year 2000 and with the agreement on the Islamic Community of Valencia. This new installation has two entrances. The first is used for family visits, it is connected to the General Cemetery and it exhibits a horseshoe arch at the gate with the Islamic Cemetery identification written in Arabian. The second one is used exclusively for burials and leads directly to the outside, facing the district of San Isidro.

Address

SOCIEDAD ANÓNIMA AGRICULTORES DE LA VEGA DE VALENCIA (SAV)
Plaza Santo Domingo de Guzmán, nº 27
Camino Viejo de Picassent s/n.
46017 - Valencia, Spain

Contacts

Tel.: 96 352 54 78 (extensions 2502-2807-2808)
Fax.: 96 378 22 90

E-mail: sercementerios@valencia.es
Website: www.ayto-valencia.es

The English Cemetery (Malaga, Spain)

The oldest Protestant cemetery on mainland Spain.

The English Cemetery in Malaga was established in January 1831 at the behest of the then British Consul, William Mark, who successfully appealed to the Governor for a piece of land on which to provide British subjects of the protestant faith with a decent burial.

Important people buried in the cemetery

The first recorded burial was that of George Stephens (Captain of the brig “Cicero”, who drowned in Malaga harbour) which took place on 22 January 1831. This was followed by that of Robert Boyd, executed by firing squad with the Liberal leader, General Jose Maria Torijos, and his followers on 11 December of that year. Subsequent burials of interest include:

• Dr Joseph Noble, Member of Parliament and physician, who died in 1861 the victim of cholera, and in whose memory his family built the Hospital Noble which until recent times served the people of Malaga;

• William Nutter, British landscape painter, died 1871;

• 42 officers and men of the Imperial German Navy sail training ship “Gniesenau”, which foundered outside Malaga Harbour in December 1900;

• George Langworthy, owner of the first hotel to be established in Torremolinos, and which would subsequently lead to the Costa del Sol becoming a popular tourist resort, died 1945;

• 4 Commonwealth War Graves of the Second World War;

• The Finish author and journalist Aarne Viktor Haapakoski, aka “Outsider” and “Henrik Horna”, died 1961;

• The English author and Hispanist, Gerald Brenan (died 1987) and his poetess wife, Gamel Woolsey, an American citizen (died 1968);

• The Spanish poet Jorge Guillen, 1984.

A place of historic and cultural importance

In 2006 agreement was reached with the British government for the ownership of the cemetery to be transferred to The English Cemetery in Malaga Foundation, a Spanish registered charity, whose aims are the maintenance and promotion of the cemetery as a place of historic and cultural interest.

In November 2012, the Andalucian Regional Parliament agreed to the inclusion of the cemetery on the Regional Heritage Register as a monument of historical and cultural interest.

Address

English Cemetery in Malaga Foundation
Avenida de Pries, 1
29016 Málaga
Spain

Contact and website

Phone: +34 952 223 552

www.cementerioinglesmalaga.org

Varaždin Cemetery (Varaždin, Croatia)

An outstanding example of landscape architecture and natural monuments.

About the cemetery

Unlike other cemeteries, Varaždin’s was devised by a visionary soul called Herman Haller. Haller, who not only designed a resting place of the dead, but an outstanding example of landscape architecture and natural monuments. It is an ideal, restful place for visitors due to the botanic composition of birch, flowers, grass and tall cypress trees, which enable the delicate play of light and shadow.

Varaždin cemetery was established in 1773, and in 1905, Herman Haller began to arrange about 7.000 plants - cypress, maple, ash, red beech, boxes, magnolia and birch. Clipping Thuja in geometrical bodies made the cemetery more similar to the French fleet. One of the most valuable monuments in the Varaždin cemetery is the "Angel of Death", the work of Sculptor Robert Frangeš Mihanović, which symbolically shows the farewell of the living with the dead. Among other attractions, visitors should see the monument of Vatroslav Jagić, decorated with fresh flowers daily.

*Photo and text source: www.tourism-varazdin.hr

Contacts

Varaždin Cemetery
Hallerova aleja 8
42000 Varaždin
Croatia

Tel. +385(0)42332777
Fax: +385(0)42332787
Email: info@parkovi.com

Website: www.parkovi.com

Opening hours

December to February: 7.00 - 19.00
March, April and October: 7.00 - 20.00.
May to September: 7.00 - 21.00

Tourist information

www.turizam-vzz.hr
www.croatia.hr
www.varazdin.hr
www.varazdinska-zupanija.hr
www.hotel-turist.hr/
www.hotelvarazdin.com/

The Vienna Central Cemetery (Vienna, Austria)

The Vienna Central Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in the world by the number of buried.

About the cemetery

It was built in the late XIX century according to the plans of the Frankfurt landscape architects Karl Jonas Mylius and Alfred Friedrich Bluntschli who were awarded for their project "per angusta ad augusta" (from dire to sublime). The layout was designed for a multi-confessional graveyard. A church dedicated to St. Charles Borromeo was then built as designed by Max Hegele, and it opened in 1911.

Important personalities at the cemetery

Vienna is a city of music and the municipality expressed gratitude to composers by granting them monumental tombs. To mention a few: Antonio Salieri, Johann Strauss the older, Johannes Brahms, Johann Strauss the younger, Franz Schubert, Ludwig van Beethoven, Arnold Schoenberg, etc.

Vienna is also a city of architects (Adolf Loos and Josef Hoffmann are buried here), writers (such as Karl Kraus), politicians (like Julius Raab, who as chancellor signed the state treaty in 1955 and his popular predecessor Leopold Figl who was later to become the Austrian minister of foreign affairs), Bruno Kreisky (the Sun King), Viktor Adler, Otto Bauer,... All of them, and many more, have been laid to rest in graves of honour at the Vienna Central Cemetery.

Address

Wiener Zentralfriedhof
Simmeringer Hauptstrasse 234
1110 Vienna Austria

Contacts

Phone: +43 (0)1 760410
Email: post@friedhoefewien.at
Website: www.friedhoefewien.at

Tourist information

http://www.wien.info
http://www.austria.info
http://www.wien.at

Žale Cemetery (Ljubljana, Slovenia)

Žale, which is an old Slavic word for a cemetery, is the main cemetery of the city of Ljubljana.

About the cemetery

It was founded in 1906 and is still in use today. In the years 1938/40 its design was made by architect Jože Plečnik (1872-1957), who was undoubtedly the most important figure in the history of Slovene architecture.

Behind a symmetrical entry building, which is a combination of two wings joined by a peristyle, is a park with individual chapels and signs. The central alley ends with the funeral room. Beside this exceptional complex of Plečnik, the importance of the cemetery lies also in the tombs and tombstones of notable Slovenian personalities, which are works of the most important Slovenian artists.

Through the cemetery runs the Pathway of Memory and Companionship, in memory of a barbed wire fence, which surrounded the city from 1942 until 1945. After the war it was developed into the 30 km track around the city with the aim to provide a green recreational facility.

The new part of the cemetery was designed in 1988 by architect Marko Mušič. Design for this city of the dead shows his respect for Plečnik's work and his orientation towards classical tradition of antiquity and ancient Egypt.

Cemetery Žale is of great significance to Slovenian culture. At the same time its high artistic quality presents it also as unique among European cemeteries.

*Photo source: www.visitljubljana.com

Contacts

ŽALE Javno podjetje, d.o.o.
Med hmeljniki 2,
Ljubljana,
Slovenia

Mail: info@zale.si
Tel: 00386 1 420 17 00

Web: www.zale.si

Opening hours

In summer: 6.00 to 21.00
In winter: 7.00 to 20.00

Funeral hours

Monday to Saturday: every hour from 9.00 till 16.00

Bus to reach the cemetery

Bus Nr. 19 - Tomačevo

Ljubljana Tourist Board

Gregorčičeva 7
1000 Ljubljana

Phone: (+386 1) 426 71 14
252 34 15 , 252 34 45
Fax: +386 1/425 33 58

E-mail: info@ljubljana-tourism.si

Tourist information

www.visitljubljana.com
www.ljubljana.si
www.burger.si/Ljubljana/Ljubljana.htm

Cemetery of Agramonte (Porto, Portugal)

The resting place of a number of eminent figures, such as count Ferreira, sculptor Henrique Moreira, archaeologist António Augusto da Rocha Peixoto, cellist Guilhermina Suggia, filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira and others.

About the cemetery

Only in 1855 does the situation of the Porto cemeteries begins to change, as consequence of the second great cholera epidemic. The civil authorities managed to close the private cemeteries, which were in bad condition, and simultaneously had a new municipal cemetery built rather hastily - Agramonte.

In a first stage, this cemetery was mostly used to bury the cholera victims. Since there were two municipal cemeteries, the population began to see Prado do Repouso as a more dignified cemetery, considering it wasn’t improvised as Agramonte was (whose chapel was made of wood). Furthermore, some “bold people” had already erected monuments in Prado do Repouso.

The Private Sections of Municipal Cemeteries

Following the 1855 epidemic, all the cemeteries belonging to the Brotherhoods had to be reopened, although the maintenance of those in no condition was increasingly less consensual. In a lengthy and difficult process, each Brotherhood made a deal with the Porto City Council to acquire private sections in the municipal cemeteries. With the restructuring of the Agramonte Cemetery, around 1869, other Brotherhoods of the city established their private cemeteries there.

Of the private catholic cemeteries already in existence, only those of Lapa and Bonfim remained in their own location, because although they were not public, their design was urban and modern (especially that of Lapa), standing on elevated ground and reasonably away from houses. Porto now has eight cemeteries with private sections, which is unique in the country.

Address

Rua de Agramonte (main entrance)
Rua João Martins Branco (side entrance, opened only on special occasions)
4150-031 Porto
Portugal

Contacts

Phone: +351 22 6066604
Fax: +351 22 6067583
Email: cemiterio-agramonte@cm-porto.pt

Other information

Tourist information
http://www.portoturismo.pt/pt/default.asp

City Hall site
http://www.cm-porto.pt/

*Photo source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agramonte_Cemetery#/media/File:CemiterioAgramonte-Porto-PT-2015.jpg

Cemetery of Bilbao (Bilbao, Spain)

It is the main cemetery in Bilbao and covers a surface area of 208.000 m2.

About the cemetery

Bilbao Cemetery opened in 1902. In that time converged both the development of a local industrial bourgeoisie and the existence of prestigious Basque architects and sculptors. That period is reflected in the cemetery through a variety of sculptures and architectural elements, which constitute one of the main funerary art groups all over the country, illustrating in an exemplary manner the golden age of Basque art. Its authors are the same that led with their proposals the construction of the new Bilbao in the late nineteenth century and early decades of the twentieth. 

Cemetery of Bilbao, from an historical point of view, shows local social developments of the twentieth century through the visible change in funeral customs, while also giving testimony of various dramatic events the town was through.

Adress

Servicios Funerarios de Bilbao, S.L.
C/Santimami Auzoa, 4
48170 Bilbao
Spain

Contacts

Tel. +34 944 231 019
Tel/Fax: +34 944 531 876
Email: bhz@sfb.bilbao.net

Website: Bilbao Funeral Services

Office hours

Monday - Sunday: 08.00 to 14.00

Visite hours

Winter (October to June)
Monday - Sunday: 8.00 to 18.00

Summer (July to September)
Monday - Sunday: 8.00 to 20.00

Tourist information

Access by train
www.euskotren.es

Acess by bus
www.bizkaia.net

City Council of Bilbao
www.bilbao.net

Tourist information
www.bilbao.net/bilbaoturismo

Westerveld Cemetery & Crematorium (Driehuis, Netherlands)

This cemetery, places in a vast dune landscape, is the final resting place for many Dutch persons who were famed at home and abroad.

About the cemetery

Westerveld Cemetery & Crematorium is placed in a vast dune landscape, with the official status of a bird sanctuary. That is one of the many things that makes this cemetery so special. The hilly terrain provides an almost intimate shelter. At the same time, Westerveld represents a historic turning point in Dutch death culture, and this magnificent location is the seat of the cremation movement in the Netherlands.

History

In the 17th century, the Westerveld country estate was an idyllic spot owned by a rich family from Amsterdam. After the site had been purchased as a cemetery in 1888, landscape architect Louis Paul Zocher (known for his design for the Vondelpark in Amsterdam) adapted the park in line with its new function.

The fact that this magnificent dune area turned into a cemetery at the end of the 19th century, was the result of a changing funeral culture. From 1 January 1866, people could no longer be buried in churches and graveyards, by order of the government. Cemeteries sprung up on the city outskirts. A number of wealthy residents of Amsterdam, mainly from the world of banking, were looking for a tranquil location for a family cemetery with a perpetual grave right. Their attention was drawn to the remote Westerveld country estate in the dunes. They entered into an agreement with the company that ran the Amsterdam-IJmuiden railway line. Until 1917, the deceased and their next of kin could be transported by a special mourning train. A special branch ran from the main line to Westerveld, complete with a mourning station and adjoining auditorium.

Design

The hilly landscape made it possible to build aboveground crypts in the dunes. In 1906, the famous Dutch architect Joseph Th. J. Cuypers (known for the new Saint Bavo Cathedral in Haarlem that was completed in 1930) designed the oldest of these aboveground crypts, which held eighteen coffins. Wandering around Westerveld you encounter various mausoleums, each with their own architecture and character.

Architect Willem Marinus Dudok has played an important role in the history of Westerveld. He designed the second cremation auditorium, an urn and a number of columbaria.

Important personalities

Westerveld, which has been managed by "the Facultatieve Group" since 2004, is the final resting place for many Dutch persons who were famed at home and abroad. In 1948, social critic and author Multatuli (the first Dutchman to be cremated, albeit in Germany) was given a monument at Westerveld, of soft marlstone with a sculpted flaming torch. A gold-coloured urn with a bronze tablet in the first columbarium reminds visitors of the physician doctor Christiaan Joannes Vaillant, the first person to be cremated in the Netherlands (1914). The monument for Aletta Henriëtte Jacobs and her husband stands against the wall of the second columbarium, close to the Impluvium. Jacobs was the first graduated woman and the first female physician in Dutch history. The bronze relief in the monument depicts a man and a woman, both kneeling down on the globe and holding a burning torch. Other famous world citizens who found their final resting-place at Westerveld include the Austrian ideologist Marxism Karl Kautsky († 1938), aviation pioneer Antony Fokker († 1939), Russian conductor Kirill Kondrashin († 1981) and Russian pianist Youri Egorov († 1988).

For them and everyone else, once a year Westerveld is home to a Concerto In Memoriam, attended by thousands of visitors who listen to impressive music and a Word of Comfort, spoken by a different guest speaker each year.

Address

Westerveld Cemetery & Crematorium
Duin en Kruidbergerweg 2-6
1985 HG Driehuis
Netherlands

Contacts

Tel. +31(0)255514843
Tel/Fax: +31(0)255530076

e-mail: info@bc-westerveld.nl
Website: Westerveld Cemetery & Crematorium

Opening hours

Every day from 09.00 to 17.00

Modernist Cemetery of Lloret de Mar (Lloret de Mar, Costa Brava, Spain)

The Modernist Cemetery of Lloret de Mar contains a collection of pieces of art more that can be considered as one of the most significant of the Catalan funeral art during the modernist period.

About the cemetery

The Modernist Cemetery of Lloret de Mar was projected by Joaquim Artau at the ends of 1896. It showcases a collection of pieces of art with an unquestionable patrimonial interest, that reveals the perspective about the funeral art in that period.

Several famous architects and sculptors participated in the project, like Josep Puig i Cadafalch, Antoni M. Gallisà i Soqué, Lluís Llimona, Vicença Artigas I ALbertí, Boncaventura Conill i Montobiio, Ismael Smith, Eusebi Arnau, etc. Many of them were disciples of Gaudi’s School.

In the development of that cemetery it has to be emphasized the participation of particular people who financed its creation, had an impact on the general structure and the formation of the sculptures. In the early twenty century, there were a lot of “indianos” who made their fortune in the Americas and that, once consolidated their social and economic status, they decided coming back to their native country (or village). Once here, they built luxurious houses, which served to illustrate their richness, and built great mausoleums, another indicator of their status and an assurance for a good afterlife.

Address

Modernist Cemetery of Lloret de Mar
Camí del Bon Repòs
17310 Lloret de Mar
Spain

Contacts

Tel. +34972364735
Email: patrimonicultural@lloret.cat
Website: www.patrimoni.lloret.cat

Bellu Cemetery (Bucharest, Romania)

The so called “Bellu’s Garden of Souls” is the largest and most famous cemetery in Bucharest.

About the cemetery

The Bellu Cemetery was founded on the domain of an orchard with oranges donated to the state by a rich minister called Bellu and on the territory of the Vacaresti monastery which had three windmills. The necessity of its existence came with the European politics of urbanism and hygiene, adapted also by the Romanian administration, during the Turkish occupation. 

It was concived as an Orthodox Cemetery, but has also some exception like the occult monument dedicated to the genius child of a Romanian writer Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, who died at 17th years old in Paris. From May 1850 the cemetery starts the delimitation of the new cemeteries area for the Ortodoxs, Catholics, Armenians, Protestants, Jewishs, Turkishs.

The first “inhabitants” of the “Souls Garden” were brought from other cemeteries situated around the churches. Bucharest developed as a city of neighborhoods, called “mahalale”. The city civic center was the church, and so also the cemetery was a public space. With the dislocation of cemeteries, outside the limits of the urban area, the public activity around them was reduced.

Today, the cemetery occupies 220,000 sqm and become the most important gallery of the Romanian historical personalities. Here lies the most famous Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu; the Romanian folkloric singer Maria Tanase; important ministers, writers, actors, architects, bankers, etc.

The Romantic sculptures gave the impressions of a very vivid sculptural patrimony, because of their very realistic execution and details. The architectural patrimony consists in:

• decorated sepulchers in Neogothic, Art Deco style
• in the chapel made by the architect Orascu also buried in this cemetery,
• in the three mausoleums made by the architect Ion Mincu, the promoter of the Neo Romanian style, whose name was borrowed by to the University of Architecture of Bucharest.

The solemnity and the beauty of the funeral monuments become a part of a unique atmosphere, becoming part of a universe where the green vegetation hosts the eternal mourning, transforming it into bird song. Today visiting Bellu is an escape in a green island, a hospitable “garden of souls”, in the middle of a crowded city.



*Photo source: www.ro.wikipedia.org

Address

Bellu Cemetery
Calea Șerban Vodă 249, sector 4,
Intrarea Serelor nr.1, sector 4,
040214 Bucharest
Romania

Contacts

Tel: 004021-6363-571
Fax: 004021-3344-254
Email: sesizare@accu.ro

Website: http://www.accu.ro

Verano Monumental Cemetery (Rome, Italy)

The name verano refers to the Ancient Roman "campo dei Verani" that was located in that area and contained ancient Christian catacombs.

About the cemetery

The project for the municipal cemetery in Rome first surfaced during Napoleon's times. Works then began in 1811 in the selected area, close to the Basilica of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura (outside the city wall), a plot that originally belonged to the Verani family. In 1859 additional works began, on the basis of a plan by Virginio Vespignani. Overall, the aspect of the Cemetery is typified by the original XIX century structure by Vespignani (gateway, Quadriportico and Chapel), that are matched, in terms of architectural and urban quality, by the remarkable structures of the Pincetto vecchio and the Pincetto nuovo, with especially valuable items from the last decades of the XIX century onwards.

The cemetery hosts several works by major Roman and Italian architects and sculptors, such as G. Koch, Pio and Marcello Piacentini, G. Monteverde, E. Ximenes, P. Canonica, E. Ferrari, D. Cambellotti. The series of XIX century funerary portraits by Filippo Severati are especially interesting, due to the originality of materials and their inherent quality: they are painted on lava and represent an important gallery of the affluent Roman bourgeoisie, who, as clients, required artefacts up to their role.

Address

Verano Monumental Cemetery
Record and Research Centre
Piazzale del Verano
I - 00100 Roma

Email: infodocumentazioneverano@comune.roma.it
Web: www.comune.roma.it

Tourist Information Office

APT - Roma Via Parigi, 11
00185 Roma

Phone: +39 06 488991
Fax: + 39 06 4819316
Email: info@aptroma.com

Tourist information

www.romaturismo.it (Tourist info)
www.comune.roma.it (City portal)
www.adr.it (Airport)
www.trenitalia.it (Italian railways)
www.atac.roma.it (City buses)

Igualada Cemetery (Igualada, Spain)

With its non traditional design, this cemetery became one of the most poetic works of twentieth century Catalan architecture.

About the cemetery

Igualada Cemetery, also referred to as the New Cemetery, is a cemetery in Igualada, near Barcelona in Spain. It was designed by the architects Enric Miralles and Carme Pinós after they won an architectural competition in 1984. The construction took place between 1985 and 1994 as a replacement for the Old Cemetery.

Away from the concept of a traditional cemetery, the new project aimed to show the installation of a park to stroll without being surrounded by the typical images of such premises. The proposal was to cut into the floor, and locate the tombs into the walls, so that the cemetery would be integrated with the terrain and landscape. 

The whole enclosure contains corners, objects and details that constantly play with light and shade, giving a great symbolism to the entire place and the new cemetery soon became widely known as one of the most poetic works of twentieth century Catalan architecture. It has also been awarded with the FAD Architecture Prize.

*Text and photo source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igualada_Cemetery

Address

Cemeteries of Igualada
Països Baixos Street 23 (in the Igualada Industrial Area)
08700 Igualada
Spain

Contacts

Tel. +34 938 030 214
E-mail: cementiris@aj-igualada.net

Ohlsdorf Cemetery (Hamburg, Germany)

The Ohlsdorf Cemetery was established in 1877 as a non-denominational burial site.

About the cemetery

Two different landscaping trends contributed to the current aspect of the cemetery. The first was introduced by the architect Wilhelm Cordes (1840-1917), of national and international renown, who worked 38 years to create a "garden cemetery". The cemetery was then expanded after World War I, on the basis of a project by Otto Linne (1869-1937), with strict architectural layouts and grave plots considered as basic units.

Both sections of the cemetery are suitable for extensive walks, especially in the Old Hamburg Memorial Cemetery, the Rose Garden and, more recently, the Women's Garden. In addition, there are several memorial sites for war casualties and the victims of tyranny and oppression. There is evidence that almost 330 architects and sculptors contributed their work. Since 1996, a small historical building hosts a funerary museum.

Cemetery Administration

Friedhof Ohlsdorf
Fuhlsbuttler Strasse 756
D-22337 Hamburg

Phone: +49 (0)40 59388-0
Fax: +49 (0)40 59388-888
Website: www.friedhof-hamburg.de

Friends of Ohlsdorf Cemetery

Forderkreis Ohlsdorfer Friedhof e.V.
Fuhlsbuttler Strasse 756
D-22337 Hamburg

Phone: +49 (0) 40 50053387 Website: www.fof-ohlsdorf.de

Opening hours

April to October from 8.00 to 21.00
November to March from 8.00 to 18.00

Office hours

Monday to Thursday from 9.00 to 16.00
Friday from 9.00 to 15.00

Tourist information

City Portal
www.hamburg.de

Tourist Information
www.hamburg-tourismus.de

Tourist and travel informations
international.hamburg.de

Public transpor
www.hvv.de

Old Cemetery of Twelve Apostle (Berlin, Germany)

The Old Cemetery of Twelve Apostle is one of the most important cemeteries in Berlin in terms of art and culture.

About the cemetery

The Old Cemetery of Twelve Apostle is the first cemetery of the Protestant Parish of Twelve Apostle, established in 1864 by the royal landscape architect Carl David Bouché (1801-1881) in the style of a Campo Santo. At that time, the cemetery was located far outside the then inhabited urban area.

High concentration of grave monuments with considerable artistic value, some rare galvanized bronze sculptures, iron casted fences and a visible historical tree and rich plant population characterize this worth seeing place. Here we can find gravesites of famous artists of the 19th and 20th century, for example the sculptor Reinhold Begas and the painters Anton von Werner and Robert Warthmüller.

The chapel is a new building, created in 1957 by G. Lichtfuss.

Address

Kolonnenstraße 24-25
10829 Berlin
Germany

Website

www.zwoelf-apostel-berlin.de

*Photo source: https://www.zwoelf-apostel-berlin.de/

English Cemetery (Florence, Italy)

This Protestant cemetery located at Piazzale Donatello was founded in 1827 by the Swiss Evangelical Reformed Church.

The Victorian (1827-1877), so-called ‘English’ Cemetery for non Catholics (Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox and other confessions), owned by the Swiss Reformed Church, is now surrounded by traffic. It is located on a hill with cypress trees, that may be an Etruscan tomb, famously presented in Arnold Boecklin’s ‘Island of the Dead.

Its tombs are sculpted by some of the greatest sculptors of the nineteenth century. It is the burial place of the poets and writers, sculptors and artists, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Walter Savage Landor, Arthur Hugh Clough, Frances Trollope, Hiram Powers, Joel Hart, many friends of Florence Nightingale, and many participants in the Battle of Waterloo. Burials now can be of cinerary urns and bones, no longer entire bodies.

Address

English Cemetery
Piazzale Donatello 38
50132 Firenze, Italy

Contacts

Tel.: 39 055582608
Tel/Fax: 39 055582608
E-mail: holloway.julia@tiscali.it
http://www.florin.ms/cemetery.html

Tourist information

http://www.firenzeturismo.it/
http://www.firenzeturismo.it/en_EN/

Milan Monumental Cemetery (Milan, Italy)

The Milan Monumental Cemetery is located in an area of 250.000 mq. Inaugurated in 1866, it was designed by the architect Carlo Maciachini (1818-1899).

About the cemetery

The construction first met the hygienic and town-planning needs linked to the presence of a high number of burial places inside the town. Moreover, the Municipality wanted to give the community a representative place by joining the cult of the dead. Within its walls, Monumentale gives hospitality to graves of different cults an religions, including the sections for non-Catholics and Jews.

An open-air museum

The work of Maciachini includes different stylists suggestions according to the eclectic taste of the age and it joins together the Pisano Gothic and the Lumbard Romanesque style with some inserts imitating the Byzantine style. The entrance square is dominated by the Memorial Chapel Famedio, a successful neologism indicating the temple dedicated to fame and giving hospitality to famous and well-deserving men.The sculptures and building of the Monumental Cemetery show the town historical events and its artistic history from Realism and Eclecticism, to Liberty and Symbolism until the contemporary age, as if it were a real museum in the open air where the main Italian artists are represented.

Address

Piazzale Cimitero Monumentale
20154 Milano

Contacts

Phone: +39 02 884 65600 / 45678 / 45680
Fax: +39 02 884 46774
E-mail: dsc.cimiteromonumentale@comune.milano.it

Web: comune.milano.it/monumentale

Opening hours

Tuesday – Sunday: 8.00 – 18.00
Monday Closed

Office hours 

Monday – Saturday: 8.30 – 12.00
and 13.30 – 16.30

How to get here

Bus: 94
Tram: 2 - 4 - 33 - 10 - 12 - 14
Subway: M2, M5
Railway Station: F.S. Garibaldi

Tourist information

IAT - UFFICI INFORMAZIONE E ACCOGLIENZA TURISTICA
Piazza Duomo, 19/a (City Center)
20121 Milano

Phone: + 39 02 774 04343
Fax: +39 02 774 04333
Email: iat.info@provincia.milano.it
Web: www.visitamilano.it

www.comune.milano.it (City Portal)
www.aeroporti.com (Airports)
www.fs-on-line.com (Italian railwais)
www.ferrovienord.it (Local railwais)
www.atm-mi.it (Subway)
www.taximalpensa.it (Taxi)
www.bicar.it (Car Hire)
www.itwg.com (Hotel reservation)
www.camping.it (Camping)

First Cemetery of Athens (Greece)

The First Cemetery of Athens (A Koimitirio Athinon) was founded around 1837, when Athens was also established as the capital city of the modern Greek state.

About the cemetery

The First Cemetery of Athens spreads on the slope of the Ardittos hill, close to the Panathinaiko Stadium. Major Greek figures are buried in the First Cemetery, such as heroes of the Greek Revolution, politicians, poets, artists, etc. 

The style of the cemetery can be traced to the Romantic period. The collection of sculptures hosted in the cemetery can be considered as a most significant and genuine example of the quality attained in marble carving in Greece between 1850 and 1920. Memorial art flourished during the 19th century and marked the rebirth of the new Greek state. All kinds of monuments and ornamental patterns appeared which conveyed the influence of ancient times (stelae, columns, reliefs, sarcophagi, small neoclassical temples). Apart from funerary artworks based on ancient models, some samples can be found of Byzantine and Egyptian patterns, as well as a remarkable number of copper masterpieces.

Address

First Cemetery of Athens
Logginou 3,
Athina 116 36,
Greece

Contacts

Phone: +30 21 0922 1621

Old St. Matthew`s Cemetery (Berlin, Germany)

The cemetery was founded in 1856. It is one of Berlin´s most significant graveyards, with more than 60 graves of very important personages.

About the cemetery

Among the famous people buried in this cemetery it is certainly worth mentioning the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the doctor and politician Rudolf Virchow, the educationalist Adolf Diesterweg and the composer Max Bruch.

Many impressive grave architectures and sculptures are of considerable artistic value, created by architects and artist of the Prussian Empire. Some of them are buried here, for example Friedrich Drake, Heino Schmieden and Alfred Messel. 

*Photo source: www.wikimedia.org

Address

Old St. Matthew`s Cemetery
Großgörschenstraße 12-14
D-10829 Berlin
Germany

Contacts

Phone: +49 0307811850
Fax: +49 0307883435
E-mail: kirchhoefe@zwoelf-apostel-berlin.de

Website: www.zwoelf-apostel-berlin.de

Tourist information

www.grabpatenschaften-berlin.de
www.efeu-ev.de
www.berlin.de/
www.visitberlin.de/
www.bvg.de/