Milano’s Cimitero Monumentale – Monumental Cemetery – is beyond words. It rivals many museums of architecture and sculpture and offers a lesson one could spend years studying. The architectural periods and sculptural styles are diverse and magnificent! And to have them side-by-side provides a concentrated contrast hard to find elsewhere.

I had heard about it when here last summer, so I took the green line on the subway to the Garibaldi stop and headed in the general direction. The chaotic streets made it difficult to navigate, but I checked my map often.

The entrance building is palatial and I’m sure oft-photographed, but I immediately went deep into the old crypts seeking out those which are generally overlooked. What a study in Italian names! I found myself pronouncing each one quietly out loud, so for the following two hours the dead were having their names read aloud. The oldest burials were from the late 1800s; the cemetery was opened in 1866. The most recent grave I encountered was from just a few weeks ago.

This woman’s name – Vittoria Colombo Carugati –
was never written in with much more than pencil.

This memorial is perhaps the most startling that I saw. It shows two very emaciated men, barely draped and in a kiss at death. Both of them reach out to the hand of the woman seated near them. Wouldn’t you love to know THAT story!?

Some of the tombs are the size of a small apartment!
And the architectural styles cover the full gamut!

This is quite a modern memorial!
Other quite modern pieces were boxy enclosures of broad glass and stone.

Near the grand entry, this memorial to an architect says across the top of one side, “Offer your spirit to God the redeemer. Offer your blood to your country.”

As I was leaving, I heard the unmistakable sound of vigil prayers. I followed the music of voices to a small chapel at the back and underside of the grand entry, and found a gathering of elder women praying for the repose of souls. “May perpetual light shine upon them.” Here are the names of those they were praying for today. (I love the decidedly European handwriting, all of one woman.)