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Some people just don’t like the idea of cemeteries, feeling uneasy knowing that they are surrounded by so many long, lost departed souls. Me? I love them and have visited a great many in cities around the world. A place of remembrance, it gives solace to those who visit their loved ones, but it can also tell you so much about the culture and history of a city or country.
My favorite cemetery, second only to La Recoleta in Buenos Aires, is located in Milan. A couple of years ago, my friend Judy and I ventured out on the new subway line in search of what this place had to offer. We were blown away! The extravagance and opulence were more than we ever expected!
Opened in 1866, the largest cemetery in Milan can be described as more of a museum or park. Filled with contemporary and classical Italian sculptures and tombs, it also features Greek temples, elaborate obelisks and many original works from a vast array of famous artists. Many notable Italian citizens are interred throughout the property, including conductor and cellist, Arturo Toscanini, actor, Walter Chiari and Nobel prize winner, Salvatore Quasimodo.
Just recently, I found myself in Milan again on a beautiful, warm and sunny day. Heading out by myself, I decided that Monumentale would be the perfect location to take in the lovely afternoon and capture its beauty with my camera.
Entering through the main Famedio, a Neo Medieval style memorial chapel made of marble and stone, I first stopped to gaze upon the beautiful blue ceiling and the tomb of novelist, Alessandro Manzoni before making my way through each of the hallways. I particularly loved walking along the outer edges of the open-aired corridors so that I could admire the building’s architecture, the courtyard and the ornate tombs that line the area.
Before making my way into the cemetery’s immaculately groomed grounds, I then walked the full length of the building’s lower level, exiting at the center, where I could examine the map and the locations of the cemetery’s famous occupants. In this area is also a structure comprised of metal tubes and black and white stones centered with a small clay bowl placed inside the main formation. Surrounded by memorial plaques, I was informed by a fellow bystander that it is a monument to the 800 Italians who perished in Nazi concentration camps and the bowl was filled with soil from the Mauthausen concentration camp.
Wandering the grounds, through the avenues of trees, should be reserved for an unhurried pace as to absorb entire beauty of the surroundings and that’s just what I did. It was impossible not to want to stop and inspect each monument, so detailed and individualized were they. Many of the tombs and funerary monuments are of such an extravagant size, it is almost as through you are walking through a neighborhood of homes.
At the rear of the property is the Jewish section which contains its own entrance, and a central building which was once the original entrance for Monumentale. There are many monuments of artistic value in this section by famous architects and sculptors. When walking through this area, be sure not to miss the artistic windows in the central building which represent the twelve tribes of Israel by artist Diego Pennacchio Ardemagni.
Three other sites that absolutely cannot be missed are Mausoleum of Antonio Bernocchi (designed by Giannino Castiglioni), where you can lean inside and gaze at the upward spiral design of the monument, the full-size casting of the Last Supper for the Campari family tomb and the monument to the Besenzanica family, “L’Aratura” designed by Enrico Butti.
Even with the lesser known and less famous gravesites, beautifully detailed sculpture can be found. My favorites were of people of all walks of life…sailors, soldiers, children…but I especially enjoyed the flying girls and the grave with the scooter as they were so different.
My second time in Monumentale, I enjoyed as much as my first, staying for more than three hours. Many people always tell first-timers to visit the Duomo and the Last Supper, but honestly, this ranks right up there as an extremely important Milanese tourist destination.
So…when in Milan, skip the fashion shows…spend a day surrounded by art in Milan’s open-aired museum…I mean cemetery!
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Monumentale Cemetery
- https://www.comune.milano.it/wps/portal/ist/en
- Piazzale Cimitero Monumentale, 20154 Milano, Italy
- Hours: 0800-1800, except Mondays, entrance permitted up to 30 minutes before closing.
- Admission: free
- Getting There: Metro, line M5, station Monumentale. Tram lines 2, 4, 12 and 14. Bus 37.
