Cimitero Monumentale di Milano

Alessandro Manzoni's tomb

The Cimitero Monumentale [tʃimiˈtɛːro monumenˈtaːle] ("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 were designed by 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
• Antonio Bernocchi (1859-1939), industrialist
• 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
• Hermann Einstein (1847-1902), father of Albert Einstein
• 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

In the media

The Hall of Fame of the Cimitero Monumentale is prominently featured in a climactic scene of the Luca Guadagnino's film I Am Love (2009).

Gallery

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  Mausoleum of Antonio Bernocchi by Giannino Castiglioni

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  Alessandro Manzoni's tomb inside the Famedio.

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  Carlo Cattaneo's tomb.

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  The decorated ceiling of the Famedio.

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  Avenue of trees inside the cemetery.

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  A pyramidic funerary shrine.

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  A funerary shrine.

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  A funerary monument.

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  Representation of Last Supper, Campari family tomb.

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  A funerary monument in the cemetery.

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  Funerary sculpture.

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  Civico Mausoleo Palanti, 1928, by Mario Palanti

See also

• Certosa di Bologna, the site of the city’s monumental cemetery
• Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno, in Genoa
• Monumental Cemetery of Bonaria in Sardinia

Coordinates: 45°29′09″N 9°10′45″E / 45.485831°N 9.179056°E / 45.485831; 9.179056

External links

• Video with photos from cemetery

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