Description of the attraction
The Staglieno Cemetery is a sprawling cemetery nestled in the hills in the Staglieno region of Genoa, renowned for its monumental sculptures. It is also one of the largest cemeteries in Europe - its area is approximately 1 square km.
The creation of the project of the cemetery dates back to the reign of Napoleon, who, by his 1804 edict, forbade the burial of the dead in churches and on the territory of cities. The first project was carried out by local architect Carlo Barabino in 1835. However, in the same year, he died during a cholera epidemic that struck Genoa, and was unable to realize his idea. Giovanni Battista Rezasco, a student of Barabino, got down to business.
For the cemetery, the southeastern part of the Staglieno hill was bought - the territory of the small village of Villa Vaccarezza was the best fit, since it was poorly populated and was located in relative proximity to Genoa. Work on the creation of the cemetery began in 1844 and was completed in January 1851. On the day of the opening of the cemetery, the first 4 burial ceremonies were held there.
Over time, the territory of the cemetery expanded, and today it includes an English cemetery, a Protestant cemetery and a Jewish cemetery. In the center stands a tall statue of Faith by Santo Varni. Opposite the statue is the domed Pantheon - a copy of the Pantheon in Rome - with a Doric portico flanked by two marble sculptures of the prophets Jeremiah and Job.
Since Genoa was once one of Italy's main educational centers, it attracted reformists and influential bourgeois. They then started the tradition of placing funerary sculptures on the graves, wishing to perpetuate the memory of themselves and their deeds. Today, at the Staglieno cemetery, you can see the tombstones of Oscar Wilde's wife Constance Lloyd, former Italian Prime Minister Ferruccio Parri, singer Fabrizio de André, politician Nino Bixio and one of the most important participants in the movement for the unification of Italy, Giuseppe Mazzini. Among the sculptors who created the funerary figures were Leonardo Bistolfi, Giulio Monteverde and Eduardo Alfieri.
The strong influence of the British Empire in the history of Genoa at the end of the 19th century is reflected in the existence of a separate English cemetery on the territory of Staglieno, where British soldiers who died during the First and Second World Wars are buried.
The Staglieno cemetery was mentioned by Mark Twain in one of his stories, and Friedrich Nietzsche often visited these places in the 1880s with his friend Paul Rea, with whom they had detailed philosophical conversations, wandering among the tombstones.
Reviews
| All reviews 4 manija567 2014-06-10 13:13:22
Another cemetery Beautiful! Another interesting Forest Cemetery in Stockholm.
