Cimitero Monumentale di Milano

Cimitero Monumentale di Milano
Details
The Famedio (the main memorial chapel of the cemetery)
Established	1866
Location	Milan
Country	Italy
Size	250,000 square metres (2,700,000 sq ft)
Website	/

Alessandro Manzoni's tomb

The Cimitero Monumentale ("Monumental Cemetery") is one of the two largest cemeteries in Milan, Italy, the other one being the Cimitero Maggiore. It is noted for the abundance of artistic tombs and monuments.

Designed by the architect Carlo Maciachini (1818–1899), it was planned to consolidate a number of small cemeteries that used to be scattered around the city into a single location.

Officially opened in 1866, it has since then been filled with a wide range of contemporary and classical Italian sculptures as well as Greek temples, elaborate obelisks, and other original works such as a scaled-down version of the Trajan's Column. Many of the tombs belong to noted industrialist dynasties, and have been designed by renowned artists such as Giò Ponti, Arturo Martini, Lucio Fontana, Medardo Rosso, Giacomo Manzù, Floriano Bodini, and Giò Pomodoro.

The main entrance is through the large Famedio, a massive Hall of Fame-like Neo-Medieval style building made of marble and stone that contains the tombs of some of the city's and the country's most honored citizens, including that of novelist Alessandro Manzoni.

The Civico Mausoleo Palanti designed by the architect Mario Palanti is a tomb built for meritorious "Milanesi", or citizens of Milan. The memorial of about 800 Milanese killed in Nazi concentration camps is located in the center and is the work of the group BBPR, formed by leading exponents of Italian rationalist architecture that included Gianluigi Banfi.

The cemetery has a special section for those who do not belong to the Catholic religion and a Jewish section.

Near the entrance there is a permeant exhibition of prints, photographs, and maps outlining the cemetery's historical development. It includes two battery-operated electric hearses built in the 1920s.

Famous graves

Signals located throughout the cemetery point visitors to several of the most remarkable tombs and monuments. Some of the personages interred in the cemetery include:

Alberto Ascari (1918–1955), Formula One champion driver
Antonio Ascari (1888–1925), Grand Prix champion driver
Ernesto Bazzaro (1859–1937), sculptor
Luca Beltrami (1854–1933), architect
Arrigo Boito (1842–1918), composer and librettist
Gino Bramieri (1928–1996), comedian and actor
Candido Cannavò (1930–2009), Italian journalist
Carlo Cattaneo (1801–1869), philosopher, patriot
Alfredo Catalani (1854–1893), composer
Walter Chiari (1924–1991), actor
Franco Corelli (1921–2003), opera tenor
Eva Duarte de Perón (1919–1952), trade union and charity leader; secretly buried as María Maggi from 1955 until removed in 1971
Filippo Filippi (1830–1887), journalist, music critic
Giorgio Gaber (1939–2003), singer-songwriter, comedian
Giuseppe Gervasini (1867–1941), religious figure
Luigi Giussani (1922–2005), priest, founder of "Communion and Liberation"
Francesco Hayez (1791–1882), Italian painter
Vladimir Horowitz (1903–1989), pianist
Herbert Kilpin (1870–1916), founder of football club A.C. Milan
Anna Kuliscioff (1857, 1925), political activist
Domenico Induno (1815–1878), Italian painter
Emilio Longoni (1859–1932), painter
Alessandro Manzoni (1785–1873) poet, novelist, considered the founder of modern Italian language, tomb located at the very center of the Famedio
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876–1944), poet and main founder of the futurist movement
Bruno Munari (1907–1998), artist
Mario Palanti (1885–1978), architect
Giovanni Pesce (1918–2007), communist partisan
Francesco Maria Piave (1810–1876), librettist, poet
Amilcare Ponchielli (1834–1886), composer
Salvatore Quasimodo (1901–1968), 1959 Nobel prize in literature
Medardo Rosso (1858–1928), sculptor
Temistocle Solera (1815–1878), poet, opera composer, librettist
Mario Tiberini (1826–1880) and his wife Angiolina Ortolani-Tiberini (1834–1913), opera singers.
Arturo Toscanini (1867–1957), conductor and cellist
Filippo Turati (1857–1932), politician
Leo Valiani (1909–1999), writer, politician
Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901), composer, was buried there for about one month before being moved to the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti