CIMITERO MONUMENTALE

Description

Essentials about the Cimitero Monumentale in brief

A cemetery as a place of interest is something rather unusual. But the Cimitero Monumentale is definitely a site worth seeing – on the one hand, because many of Italy’s most important personalities have found their final resting place here and, on the other, because many of the graves are artistically extremely interesting. At the 250,000-square-meter central cemetery of Milan, which was opened in 1866, the families of Milan’s upper middle class sought to outdo each other in pomp and pageantry, and they visibly succeeded.

The history of the Cimitero Monumentale

The Cimitero Monumentale dates back to a government decree of 1838 that required municipalities to have open cemeteries at least 200 meters away from homes and churches. Against this background, the municipality of Milan also announced a competition for the construction of a new cemetery, which would combine the city’s existing cemeteries. However, construction work on the Cimitero Monumentale did not begin until 1860, after Milan had also become part of the new Kingdom of Italy.

The complex of Cimitero Monumentale

General information on the complex

The design of the architect Carlo Maciachini was carried out, as it fulfilled both representative and practical purposes. Through a clever building layout, one crosses a kind of courtyard of honor to reach the cemetery portal. The open design of the entrance building, whose center is the Famedio (Hall of Honor), allows a speedy entry into the actual burial ground. The symmetrical layout of the cemetery is reflected in its longitudinal axis, where the three main buildings of the complex are located: The Famedio, the Ossario centrale (Central Ossarium) and the Tempio Crematorio (Crematorium). Overall, the layout is very geometric.

The entrance building visually separates the eastern and western parts of the cemetery for members of the Jewish faith and for non-believers, respectively. Both parts have a separate entrance. The Jewish graves have been left to decay for the most part. The architectural style of the cemetery can be described as eclectic; this choice of style made it possible to design the gravestones individually. Characteristic for the cemetery is its two-tone color scheme, which results from the use of white stone and red bricks.

The entrance building with the Famedio

The entrance building is composed of the Famedio and the two gallery arms branching off from it. The Famedio was initially planned as a church, but due to a change of mission it was transformed into a pantheon for outstanding Milanese personalities. Among others, the writer Alessandro Manzoni, the philosopher Carlo Cattaneo and the poet and Nobel Prize winner Salvatore Quasimodo are buried here.

The Tempio Crematorio

A special feature was the Tempio Crematorio, which has the shape of a Greek temple. Donated by the non-believing silk merchant and producer Alberto Keller on the occasion of the funeral of his wife, it was the first crematorium in Italy. Its construction and commissioning took place when the cremation of a corpse was still against the idea of the resurrection of the dead.

The tombs of Cimitero Monumentale

The Cimitero Monumentale is so famous not only because many famous personalities have found their final resting place here, but also because many of the tombs are very elaborate and artistically sophisticated. For example, the tomb of the famous Campari business family recreates “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci as a bronze sculpture. Among others, the cemetery contains the graves of pianist Vladimir Horowitz, soccer player and coach Giuseppe Meazza, conductor Arturo Toscanini and, last but not least, the architect of the cemetery, Carlo Maciachini himself.