Description
The Cimitero Monumentale of Milan is an open-air museum: a large nineteenth-century cemetery, a short walk from the center, full of sculptural tombs of Milanese families, to be seen the way you visit a gallery.
A life-size Last Supper in bronze, actually a bit larger: the Campari family, the aperitif people, wanted it on their tomb. At the Monumentale surprises are the rule.
Greek temples, obelisks, even a Trajan's Column in reduced version: the great Milanese families, from the Falck to the Bocconi, left their mark here, entrusting themselves to renowned architects and sculptors.
And yet it took a quarter of a century to be born. From the first competition in 1837 to the final project came years of quarrels, architects who died halfway and changed land.
In the end Carlo Maciachini won, with a style that mixes Byzantine, Gothic and Romanesque. The cemetery extends over about 250,000 square meters and is divided into sections along a central avenue.
The first burial was on November 2, 1866, All Souls' Day: the composer Gustavo Adolfo Noseda. The cemetery truly opened on January 1, 1867.
The church planned at the entrance became the Famedio, the "temple of fame" of illustrious Milanese, in neo-Gothic marble and brick. The first to enter were Alessandro Manzoni and Carlo Cattaneo.
Beside them rest Salvatore Quasimodo and Carla Fracci. Here are also written the names of other greats tied to the city, such as Giuseppe Verdi.
Don't miss the Crematorium Temple, the first in Italy, from 1876. And then Toscanini's tomb, Leonardo Bistolfi's, dedicated to his son Giorgio who died as a child, and the Jewish section, with its stained glass of the Twelve Tribes.
The Monumentale is also where Herbert Kilpin, one of the founders of Milan, rests, in a small niche in the gallery. There are even the tombs of great industrialists such as the Treccani and the Bracco, and the ossuary of 1874.
A life-size Last Supper in bronze, actually a bit larger: the Campari family, the aperitif people, wanted it on their tomb. At the Monumentale surprises are the rule.
Greek temples, obelisks, even a Trajan's Column in reduced version: the great Milanese families, from the Falck to the Bocconi, left their mark here, entrusting themselves to renowned architects and sculptors.
And yet it took a quarter of a century to be born. From the first competition in 1837 to the final project came years of quarrels, architects who died halfway and changed land.
In the end Carlo Maciachini won, with a style that mixes Byzantine, Gothic and Romanesque. The cemetery extends over about 250,000 square meters and is divided into sections along a central avenue.
The first burial was on November 2, 1866, All Souls' Day: the composer Gustavo Adolfo Noseda. The cemetery truly opened on January 1, 1867.
The church planned at the entrance became the Famedio, the "temple of fame" of illustrious Milanese, in neo-Gothic marble and brick. The first to enter were Alessandro Manzoni and Carlo Cattaneo.
Beside them rest Salvatore Quasimodo and Carla Fracci. Here are also written the names of other greats tied to the city, such as Giuseppe Verdi.
Don't miss the Crematorium Temple, the first in Italy, from 1876. And then Toscanini's tomb, Leonardo Bistolfi's, dedicated to his son Giorgio who died as a child, and the Jewish section, with its stained glass of the Twelve Tribes.
The Monumentale is also where Herbert Kilpin, one of the founders of Milan, rests, in a small niche in the gallery. There are even the tombs of great industrialists such as the Treccani and the Bracco, and the ossuary of 1874.