Staglieno Monumental Cemetery
The monumental cemetery Staglieno ( Italian Cimitero monumentale di Staglieno ) extends over an area of more than 1 km² on a south-east sloping mountain slope in the Genoese district of Staglieno , near Genoa . The steps of the terrain are used for arcades and colonnades with multi-storey urn niches . In the steeper mountain flanks, in a park-like environment, there are various family tombs in historical architectural styles. Due to the size of the facility and the differences in height between the individual cemetery districts, a separate minibus line operated by the local transport company operates within the cemetery .
history
The cemetery was officially opened on January 1, 1851 , although it was far from complete. The design came from the Genoese city architect Carlo Barabino (1768-1835) and envisaged a city of the dead , which should meet Genoa's claim as the commercial and cultural heart of Liguria as well as the hygienic standards of the time. Barabino's colleague Giovanni Battista Resasco (1798–1871) implemented the master's plan in the area around Villa Vaccarezza from 1844: a rectangular central building with surrounding arcades, and the main entrance overlooks the Pantheon enthroned above the area , which is accessible via a monumental staircase . The location in the middle of a green hilly landscape also allowed the creation of terraced burial grounds. An extension of the semicircular galleries in the north-east, proposed by Resasco, was realized in 1890, and additional arches were built with interruption until 1955, as well as a Protestant and English cemetery.
Sculpture park
Noteworthy are the tombs and figurative representations, often furnished with incredible pomp, stylistically predominantly committed to the "bourgeois realism" of the 19th century. Here, a naturalistic self-portrayal of the deceased is often indulged, which is in no way inferior to the self-portrayal of the living under the arcades of the Genoese shopping mile. Staglieno is a pompous museum of sculpture from the last 150 years: Baroque allegory , classicism , late romanticism , realism , naturalism , symbolism , art nouveau and art deco can be found here in marble , especially in the almost white Carrara marble , the sculptural material Statuario. A remarkable peculiarity occurs frequently: in some cases the originally almost white marble sculptures and stone elements have been blackened with black floor wax. Not only was marble used alone as a design material, but it was also imaginatively combined with mosaic , painting , fresco or painted tiles .
Group of sculptures in the Staglieno cemetery
Group of sculptures in the Staglieno cemetery
Grave sculpture in the Staglieno cemetery
Group of sculptures in the Staglieno cemetery
Grave sculpture in the Staglieno cemetery
Classicist round temple ( Pantheon ) in the Staglieno cemetery
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Prominent dead and visitors
Famous deaths include Mary Constance Wilde, wife of the English poet Oscar Wilde , the Italian singer Fabrizio de André (1940–1999) and the comic artist and author Giovan Battista Carpi . There is a monumental tomb of the nut seller Caterina Campodonico (1881), who will stand there forever in contemporary costume with a basket in hand (as in the corners of Genoa during her lifetime). She laboriously saved the creation of her marble sculpture by selling nuts and rolls, which otherwise only the wealthy Genoese could afford. Maria Francesca Delmas died on March 13, 1908 at the age of 25 in a car accident: in a marble dress, she lies as a half-naked figure on her sarcophagus, and her lover's lips are still touching her hair. A soldier, fatally hit by a bullet, falls into the arms of an angel, clutching the hand grenade. And the Genoese industrial magnate Armando Raggio even had a 28-meter-high copy of the Milan Cathedral built as his final resting place in 1896 .
Mark Twain and Guy de Maupassant , Friedrich Nietzsche and Elisabeth of Austria were impressed by Staglieno's beauty. Lee Friedlander took photos in 1993 at the Staglieno cemetery near Genoa, the hometown of Maria Friedlander's family.
Quote
“My last visit was destined for the cemetery - a burial site that is said to accommodate more than 60,000 dead. I will remember this place even if I forget the palaces. A wide marble colonnade surrounds a large empty rectangular area; the floor is also made of marble, and there is an inscription on each slab. On both sides along the corridor you can admire monuments, tombs and sculptures that are worked out down to the smallest detail and exude harmony and beauty. "
See also
Web links
- Short portrait ( Memento of 18 January 2011 at the Internet Archive ) ( English )
- Staglieno portrait art and travel
- Slide show "Of Flesh and Stone"
- Entry on the ASCE website (Italian text)
- Free guided tour of the Staglieno Cemetery (in Italian) organized by the City of Genoa
- Staglieno.eu - Still a cemetery or already an open-air art museum?
Coordinates: 44 ° 25 ′ 44.3 " N , 8 ° 56 ′ 57.5" E