Fontanelle Cemetery
The Fontanelle Cemetery ( Cimitero delle Fontanelle ) is a former cemetery and ossuary in the Rione Sanità of the Italian city of Naples .
The Cimitero delle Fontanelle is located in a cave system made of tuff , which was officially used as a burial site for the first time in 1656, when up to 1500 people died of the " Great Plague " every day and the cemeteries were already hopelessly overcrowded. Before the 16th century, the dead were buried in churches in Naples. However, when there was no longer enough space, the older corpses were dug up overnight and stacked together in empty caves, such as the caves of Via Fontanelle. It also served as a mass grave for the dead from the poor areas of the city, and those who perished in the numerous Neapolitan catastrophes such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, popular uprisings and famine.
history
After an edict of Napoleon ( Edict of Saint-Cloud ), in which burials within the city were forbidden, the cemetery was expanded according to a plan by the Neapolitan architect Carlo Praus from 1810 and a larger burial site was created. The cemetery was once again officially used for the deaths of the cholera epidemic of 1836/37.
The name delle fontanelle (it. = From the springs) is derived from the occurrence of numerous water sources in the Rione Sanità that have been used since ancient times. The caves had previously served as a quarry. It covers a floor area of more than 3,000 m², consists of three trapezoidal halls about 10 to 15 m high, called navate, with subsequent corridors several 100 m long.
Navata
Navata
Fontanelle Cemetery in the film
The Cimitero delle Fontanelle is the venue in several Italian films, including a. in the mafia film I Guappi (1974) by Pasquale Squitieri and in the comedy Il mistero di Bellavista (1984) by Luciano De Crescenzo .
It is one of the locations of Roberto Rosselini's film Reise in Italien (1954) with Ingrid Bergman .
The film drama Paranza - The Children's Clan (2019) by Claudio Giovannesi shows how mafia-like youth gangs from the Rione Sanità gather there.
literature
- Antonio Piedimonte: Il cimitero delle Fontanelle. Il culto delle anime del Purgatorio e il sottosuolo di Napoli. Napoli: Electa 2003, ISBN 88-510-0131-6 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cimetero Fontanelle , accessed on May 3, 2019
- ↑ Cimitero delle Fontanelle nei film su Napoli , accessed on May 7, 2019
- ↑ Luigi Maria Mormon: La paranza della bellezza: la riscossa del rione Sanità di Napoli 2ANews.it, March 4, 2019, accessed on May 3, 2019
Coordinates: 40 ° 51 ′ 31.2 " N , 14 ° 14 ′ 19.4" E