Cimitero Monumentale di Milano (Monumental Cemetery of Milan) is a large cemetery in Milan. Famous for the abundance of artistic tombs and monuments, the cemetery is an open-air museum, which definitely deserves to be on the list of the most important tourist attractions of the city. SHORT HISTORY In 1837, the Austrian administration of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom requested the construction of a new cemetery to replace the six pre-existing Milanese cemeteries. The winner of the final competition organized by the Municipality was the project of the architect Carlo Maciachini, designed in 1864 in an Eclectic style, with Byzantine, Gothic and Romanesque references. The inaugural blessing was given by Monsignor Giuseppe Calvi on November 2, 1866, in the presence of the mayor of Milan, Antonio Beretta. On the same day, the first burial took place, that of the body of the composer Gustavo Noseda. The official opening of the cemetery took place on January 1, 1867. Since then, the cemetery was gradually enriched with funerary works of classical and contemporary genre. ART AND ARCHITECTURE For the high artistic value of sculptures, tombs, funeral shrines and other works inside, the Milan Monumental Cemetery is among the most artistically and historically Read more [...]
All Cemeteries in Milan
The Cimitero Monumentale di Milano, inaugurated in the nineteenth century, covers approximately 250,000 square metres and functions as an extraordinary open-air museum. Its avenues contain monumental tombs, mausoleums, chapels, and sculptures created for prominent Milanese families and personalities, representing artistic movements ranging from historicism and Art Nouveau to modern twentieth-century sculpture.