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Creepy and beautiful cemeteries around the world
Cemeteries aren't the first places most people go to while on vacation, but they can tell a lot about a culture and its history. We all have to die sometime and the way we deal with the dead says a lot about ourselves.
Some cemeteries are overgrown and covered in moss. Others are orderly and well-kept. Some are beautiful, and can inspire wonderful photographs like the one taken here by user Perrimoon over at Flickr. Sometimes graveyards can be downright dangerous, like the cemetery in Haworth, England, famous as the hometown of the Brontë sisters. The dead were literally stacked ten deep in this graveyard and the stream that provided the town's water flowed right through them!
Some of the best free sights in Paris are cemeteries. The same goes for New York. My pick for the best place to see cemeteries is Rome, the city of the dead, which has splendid Renaissance tombs, ancient Roman gravestones, and mummified monks.
Do you have some good cemetery shots? Join us over at Gadling's flickr pool and show us your art. You might just get picked for Photo of the Day!
Gallery: Cemeteries, creepy and beautiful
Filed under: Arts and Culture, History, Learning, Photos
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
cigalou Jul 12th 2011 2:08AM
Good evening Byron, Can you tell me where you found out about people having their picnics on special days on the grave of their family? I read it somewhere, but cannot find anything anymore, except your little notation. I think it is a very nice idea, especially since our cemeteries for the most part are so well kept with beautiful markers, flowers and trees. It is a very good therapy
as well. I would like to revive the custom!! We have done it, friends have joined us and we feel
very good after the experience. So far we have limited ours to cake and wine and shared our memories of the person who just died 4 months ago.....
Babydoe Jun 21st 2011 3:22AM
"Forever Hollywood," is a great place to hob nob with the dearly departed. Rudolph Valentino, Jayne Mansfield,
Cecil B. DeMill, Tyrone Power, Buggsy Segal...lotta the 1940's movie Stars.Cemetaries are usually the most peaceful place in any city...good place to sit and meditate...escape the rat race...
Alejandro Jun 21st 2011 9:19PM
How can you leave out the Recoleta Cementery in Buenos Aires, Argentina?
This is one of the most beautiful miniature cities in the world. Each tomb is a mausoleum ( even Evita has one) and the all have sculptures topping them.
angelfinder Jun 20th 2011 7:52PM
Not creepy cemeteries at all- every photo was changed to put in your head an image that YOU say creepy. Go out and see the real cemeteries.
byron Jun 20th 2011 7:54PM
Japan has a yearly festival called Obon where people go to the cemetaries and crypts and dine amongst their ancesters. They also clean the bones, perform traditional acts of reverence, and in the evening, they float candles into the lakes, rivers, etc to symbolize the ancesters return to the afterworld.
bill Jun 20th 2011 7:58PM
I have been to the famous cemetary in Buenos Aires in the Ricoletta district where Eva Peron was buried. ( or what was left of her from grave robbers) It was like walking through a small city if beautiful mini mansions. I wish the United States had something like that.
byron Jun 20th 2011 8:10PM
it was not uncommon in times past for schoolteachers to be buried on the school property. nor is it uncommon for the "official limits of the cemetary" to end at the school property line. Western superstition holds that disturbing the dead, even by simply walking through the churchyard, would bring dire results upon the offender. Christianity frequently encompassed pagan superstition silently while publicly denouncing it, even to this day, you will find odd yet regurly practiced holdovers (blessings when sneezing are most common, but in Amish areas, you'll see large pentagrams on barns occassionally because of fear the family has been cursed) . Many times though, school yards were also part of the church, so would have been sacred ground. Depending on the time it occured, a suicide would be buried outside church held grounds, and usually at a crossroads. Being buried on the schools grounds meant she was actually held in fairly high esteem.
byron Jun 20th 2011 8:16PM
The greek word for cemetary is "Necropolis" necro meaning death, polis=city.therefor, city of the dead. Cemetary is actually an Anglicanized word with Latin roots.
Dian Jun 20th 2011 8:44PM
Wow, Byron, the epitaph is beautiful and quite thought provoking. I don't know if you noticed, I was commenting on anothers comment that partially quoted what could be the same epitaph. I liked what she had commented but to hear this epitaph with the history behind it has fullfilled it's meaning beyond expectation. This quote is something that hits my heart and sparks my thoughts. I will keep this in my journal of profound quotes. Thank you, Byron ~~ Beautiful!
rb Jun 20th 2011 8:41PM
Savannah Georgia is the most haunted
Save A Grave Jun 20th 2011 9:35PM
If you love cemeteries come join me on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/saveagravedotnet
Paul Jun 20th 2011 10:10PM
Recollata Cemetary in Buenos Aires was fantastic. Was there in January 2011 and it was so neat and organized and clean...and historical. St. John's Church in Richmond dates back to late 1700's; Hollywood Cemetary in Richmond is a who's who of the Civil War era (and has 2 US presidents); St. Paul's Church in Norfolk is a classic; Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg dates to the American Revolution. The cemetary on the hill in Nice France is an amazing display of honoring the lives of deceased relatives. Isn't that one objective of a cemetary...to honor the lives of those now dead? They are a history lesson for those who passed this way before us.
Connie Wilson Jun 20th 2011 9:51PM
I wrote 3 books entitled "Ghostly Tales of Route 66" (www.GhostlyTalesofRoute66.com) and covered the Resurrection Cemetery (Chicago) story pretty thoroughly (especially in the paperback version, although the Kindle also has a story about it) including going to Chet's Melody Lounge (across the street) at midnight. I also visited the Fort El Reno cemetery on November 15, 2008 for one of their Ghost Tours. Very interesting cemetery, in that many of Rommel's troops from North Africa were taken to the Fort and held there until the War was over. Many died and are buried in the Fort El Reno Cemetery (pictures of graves in Volume II of "Ghostly Tales of Route 66.") As a graduate of the University of Iowa, I am also well-acquainted with The Black Angel, and it is interesting, to me, to note that the Riverside Cemetery in Moline, Illinois has Charles Dickens' son buried withn it, who died while on a lecture tour and was buried far, far from merry olde England. Was also in Mexico during their Day of the Dead/Halloween festivities, and that is a trip.
markrabold Jun 20th 2011 11:40PM
Maybe some onecan let me know ,but I was told that tombstones are faced east ,with the words facing east so that they can see thesunrise .I looked at lots of cemetaries and quite a few are that way .In other parts of the world do anyof you s notice this ?
MONA Jun 21st 2011 12:20AM
THE BEST CEMENTERY IN THE WORLD IS IN BUENOS AIRES ARGENTINA. THEY CALL IT "RECOLETA", IT IS GOUGEOUS!, YOU CAN SPEND SEVERAL HOURS THERE.
AND THE AREA WHERE IT IS LOCATED IS THE 'CHIC'EST, THE 'GIGI'EST IN ALL SOUTH AMERICA.
zoomafrica Jun 26th 2011 1:50PM
this is really wonderful, its paradise, i love this site, i will let Ugandans see this site
Byron Jul 12th 2011 2:08AM
The practice of dining with the dead is fairly common in Mexico, the Yucatan, and South America (mostly in the more indiginous groups), Tibet, parts of China,Buhddists in India and much of Southeast Asia, and Japan and Okinawa. I learned and observed in the 80's while my family was stationed Okinawa. Religion and death ritual in particular are frightful and fascinating, just wish my kids weren't so uneasy around cemetaries, etc. The Victorians in the U.S. also did cemetary meals, but it wasn't as common and until the advent of public burial grounds, few entered unless they had to, as space was limited and bodies were stacked to the point that some were merely casket lids covered with a 1/2 foot of soil in the churchyards of London.