MILAN’S OUTDOOR MUSEUM, CIMITERO MONUMENTALE (CEMETERY)
by Michelle Bienias
Although not as famous as Paris’ Père Lachaise, the vast (250,000 sq m.) Cimitero Monumentale is considered the most beautiful of Italy’s cemeteries and one of the most popular attractions in Milan. Located near the heart of Milan, the cemetery was designed by architect Carlo Maciachini. Highlights include the Famedio (House of Fame), a pantheon-style building that is the final resting place of illustrious people such as Giuseppe Verdi, Vladimir Horowitz, Allessandro Manzoni and Arturo Toscanini. In the Palanti Chapel is a monument commemorating the 800 Milanesi citizens who were executed in Nazi concentration camps. 
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Technically a cemetery, it’s more of an outdoor museum, and a major museum of sculpture at that, with over 6,000 pieces from contemporary and classical Italian sculptors. Chapels, elaborate obelisks, statues, Greek temples and crypts (even a scaled-down version of Trajan’s Column) bear witness to more than 100 years of funerary art. Famous Italian architects and artists represented include Luca Beltrami, Mosè Bianchi, Medardo Rosso, Vincenzo Vela, Ettore Ximenes, Adolfo Wildt, Francesco Messina, Pietro Cascella and Giacomo Manzù. Monumentale opened in 1866, on the wave of the “cemetery movement” that started with Père Lachaise and spread all over Europe after the Edict of St. Cloud of 1804 prohibited burial in churches. Some of the most acclaimed sculptors were commissioned by families, both Christian and Jewish, to create lasting memorials to their loved ones, and as a civic establishment only partially controlled by the clergy, artists were free to indulge in “extreme realism” and images, which would be banned in a church. Furthermore, the Monumentale was built during the height of the Romantic Movement when the concept of death was one of release, rebirth and even ecstasy, rather than something to be feared. As such, many of the sculptures are explicit, depicting beautiful, and sometimes naked, women. One of the graves seen in the accompanying panoramas is that of Alessandro Manzoni (1785 – 1873), a poet and novelist considered the noblest figure in Italian literature of the 19th century. He penned such works as “The Count of Carmagnola”, “Adelchis”, and “The Betrothed” (I Promessi Sposi), which remains very popular in Italy and has been made into several films. Related Articles:
- PARIS' PÈRE-LACHAISE CEMETERY, A VIRTUAL TOUR
- SANTA MARIA DELLE GRAZIE WITH LEONARDO DA VINCI'S LAST SUPPER
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