Glasgow Necropolis

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Tombs of the Glasgow Necropolis
John Knox Memorial

Glasgow Necropolis is a Victorian cemetery in the Scottish Glasgow .

The site on a hill east of St Mungo's Cathedral , part of the former Wester Craigs Estate, was acquired by the merchants' guild, Merchants House of Glasgow , in 1650 and initially leased as farmland. Since it was less suitable for this, it was planted with fir trees around 1777 and elms and willows in 1804, making it a park. In 1825 a memorial to John Knox was erected on the hill : a 17.7 meter high column with the 4 meter high statue of the reformer. In 1831 it was proposed to convert the park into a garden cemetery, based on the model of the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris . After a competition and public exhibition of the 16 drafts received, the planning was entrusted to the landscape gardener George Mylne. In 1833, the Glasgow Merchants' Association acquired additional land in order to build a bridge over the Molindar Burn, a tributary of the Clyde , which was built over in 1877 with Wishart Street , as an access from the cathedral . The laying of the foundation stone for the Bridge of Sighs designed by David Hamilton (1768–1843) took place on October 18, 1833. The completion in 1836 is reminiscent of a plaque that is now attached to the entrance facade for planned, but ultimately not implemented, underground grave vaults. In reference to the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, it is called the "Bridge of Sighs".

The first burial in the Necropolis was that of the jeweler Joseph Levi in ​​the Jewish section in 1832. The first Christian burial was that of Elizabeth Miles, George Mylne's stepmother, in 1833. Through several extensions between 1860 and 1893, the cemetery doubled its original size to now 15 hectares. At least 50,000 burials have now taken place there. Among the approximately 3,500 tombs are important architects and sculptors such as Alexander "Greek" Thomson (1817–1875), David Hamilton (1768–1843), John Bryce (1805–1831) and his brother David Bryce (1803–1876), Charles Rennie Mackintosh and John Thomas Rochead (1814–1878). In 1966, Merchants House left the cemetery to the City of Glasgow, which has been responsible for its operation and maintenance ever since.

Noteworthy tombs and sculptures

Here is a selection from the many noteworthy tombs and sculptures:

Web links

Commons : Glasgow Necropolis  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Coordinates: 55 ° 51 ′ 45 "  N , 4 ° 13 ′ 50"  W.