Why does one history buff love cemeteries so much? Trust me, it’s not creepy.
I usually get weird looks when I tell people I love cemeteries. Most people think that my fascination with cemeteries is a little creepy. A day out on the town often involves some visit to a cemetery, large or small.
Why do I visit cemeteries? Well, simply because they are awesome.
Cemetery turned wildlife park. One of my favorite cemeteries ever. Welford Road Cemetery in Leicester, England.
Cemeteries are full of history, the older the better. When exploring your local cemetery, you can find the tombstones of the people that founded your town. The people streets are named after. You start to notice the changes in styles over time. Wonder why they use lambs on almost all child graves. Find those who may have died during great epidemics like the Spanish Flu in 1918. Or find some amazing epitaphs, which have kind of gone out of style in the last decades.
Rest after weariness, Gone but not forgotten. Welford Road Cemetery.
Awesome old tombstones. They just do not make them like this anymore. Welford Road Cemetery.
Tomb of writer Anne Bronte (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall), which I randomly found in Scarborough, England.
The older and overgrown a cemetery is the better. They give a sense of serene peacefulness. Long grass rustling in the wind, shaded tombstones, ivy everywhere. These tend to be harder to find but are so worth it. The older a cemetery is the less uniform the tombstones are. There are more symbols to figure out, more stylistic changes throughout time. They are more haphazardly lain out and quite frankly more scenic.
Welford Road Cemetery again. Just saying, it was awesome.
Cemeteries are not just like what you see in the pictures above. That is the image most of us picture when we think cemetery, but that is not the only way people are buried. In North America and the British Isles, cemeteries tend to look like the above, but things change on Continental Europe. Most tombs are not simple tombstones. These tombs often contain the remains of multiple family members at once and often used multiple times over the span of decades or even centuries.
Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, and the most visited cemetery in the world.
Speaking of multiple-use tombs, mausoleums were once popular among the wealthy. Some mausoleums can be simple, while some are completely outlandish. Mausoleums can often be found in older cemeteries.
Outlandish like this Greco-Roman temple in Florence, Italy‘s, Cimitero delle Porte Sante.
People are not just buried in cemeteries either. Thousands have been entombed inside of cathedrals and parish churches throughout Europe (less common in land rich America). Some have elegant carved tombs inside of large cathedrals for all to see. Others were placed into family crypts underneath churches.
A carved tomb with ridiculously creepy eyes in Salisbury Cathedral, in England.
Seal of a crypt under the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome.
The Camposanto in Pisa is said to be one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the world. I completely agree.
And don’t forget catacombs!
Stacked bones in the catacombs of Paris, which has been a tourist attraction for over a century.
Even more awesome are ancient cemeteries. The catacombs in Rome started out because the Christians were burying and hiding in Rome. Vatican City was built on top of a necropolis (literally means “city of the dead”). The pagan Romans, and sometimes Greeks, had a tendency to bury their dead along streets right outside the city walls. Large, elegant tombstones were erected for the elite. Many can still be seen today leaving Pompeii.
Road leading out of town towards the amazing Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii.
Some of these areas developed into more elaborate and overcrowded cemeteries, full of large monuments and sarcophagi.
Cemetery on the outskirts of the main gate leading into the lower part of the Greek city Assos, on the modern-day Aegean coast of Turkey.
The road through the Alyscamps, a former Roman then Medieval cemetery in Arles, France. Some of the remaining sarcophagi still line the road, although now devoid of remains.
I hope now you see why cemeteries rock. They are rich in history, so much can be learned. I hope you soon visit a local historic cemetery around you.
A cemetery that sprung up in the ruins of an abbey in St. Andrews, Scotland.
Check more cemeteries in my series on Cemeteries and Tombs!
Thank you for sharing Jana! I followed your recent trip and loved the pictures. I learned a lot about cemeteries today. Looking forward to more of your blog!!!!
You are not alone. I also love cemeteries!