Description
The Poggioreale Cemetery is Naples' main cemetery, on the hill northeast of the center, and one of the largest in Europe. Its historic core, the monumental cemetery, is an open-air museum: Doric temples, Egyptian-style pyramids and statues among the groves.
Other cemeteries grew up around the original core, until they formed a true city of the dead. For a visitor, what counts is mainly the monumental one, the one that opens onto Via Nuova Poggioreale.
The heart of the complex is the large cloister, a vast four-sided portico that the Neapolitans call "il quadrato" (the square), even though it is rectangular. Before it come two smaller cloisters. Under the porticoes and in the underground rooms there were spaces for the confraternities, so that even those with little could have a tomb with a name.
The slopes of the hill, among plants and groves, soon filled with noble tombs and small temples, mostly Doric with Egyptian touches. In a few years they changed the face of the hill. The Doric entrance, on Via Nuova Poggioreale, was designed by Stefano Gasse.
The Square of Illustrious Men has 157 monuments in seven flower beds. There is no single pantheon, but individual tombs of very different styles and sizes: the whole is evocative. Here lie Enrico De Nicola, Salvatore Di Giacomo and Luigi Settembrini.
The rest of the area has its corners too. The English cemetery of Doganella holds foreigners tied to Naples, such as the Scottish mathematician Mary Somerville and the Dutch painter Anton Sminck van Pitloo. The Jewish cemetery has sober gravestones in a long, narrow courtyard.
This area was linked to death long before. In 1528 the French army besieging the city diverted the aqueduct and turned the fields into a swamp. An epidemic broke out that killed even the commander, Lautrec. The first burials began then.
The cemetery proper came later. It was designed in 1812 by Francesco Maresca, under Joachim Murat, and consecrated in 1837 by Ferdinand II of Bourbon. The Neapolitans still had to be convinced: the nobles wanted to be buried in churches.
The city council succeeded, and the most prominent classes began to compete over ever more beautiful tombs. Some criticized the result as too "pagan". For the scholar Luigi Latini it is a Mediterranean version of Paris's Père-Lachaise.
Don't miss
• The Square of Illustrious Men.
• The large cloister.
• The Doric entrance.
• The noble tombs on the hill.
Did you know?
• Benedetto Croce is buried outside the Square, near the entrance: inside there was no room left.
• In the nearby Santa Maria del Pianto cemetery, part of the same area, rest Totò and, a few meters away, Enrico Caruso.
Other cemeteries grew up around the original core, until they formed a true city of the dead. For a visitor, what counts is mainly the monumental one, the one that opens onto Via Nuova Poggioreale.
The heart of the complex is the large cloister, a vast four-sided portico that the Neapolitans call "il quadrato" (the square), even though it is rectangular. Before it come two smaller cloisters. Under the porticoes and in the underground rooms there were spaces for the confraternities, so that even those with little could have a tomb with a name.
The slopes of the hill, among plants and groves, soon filled with noble tombs and small temples, mostly Doric with Egyptian touches. In a few years they changed the face of the hill. The Doric entrance, on Via Nuova Poggioreale, was designed by Stefano Gasse.
The Square of Illustrious Men has 157 monuments in seven flower beds. There is no single pantheon, but individual tombs of very different styles and sizes: the whole is evocative. Here lie Enrico De Nicola, Salvatore Di Giacomo and Luigi Settembrini.
The rest of the area has its corners too. The English cemetery of Doganella holds foreigners tied to Naples, such as the Scottish mathematician Mary Somerville and the Dutch painter Anton Sminck van Pitloo. The Jewish cemetery has sober gravestones in a long, narrow courtyard.
This area was linked to death long before. In 1528 the French army besieging the city diverted the aqueduct and turned the fields into a swamp. An epidemic broke out that killed even the commander, Lautrec. The first burials began then.
The cemetery proper came later. It was designed in 1812 by Francesco Maresca, under Joachim Murat, and consecrated in 1837 by Ferdinand II of Bourbon. The Neapolitans still had to be convinced: the nobles wanted to be buried in churches.
The city council succeeded, and the most prominent classes began to compete over ever more beautiful tombs. Some criticized the result as too "pagan". For the scholar Luigi Latini it is a Mediterranean version of Paris's Père-Lachaise.
Don't miss
• The Square of Illustrious Men.
• The large cloister.
• The Doric entrance.
• The noble tombs on the hill.
Did you know?
• Benedetto Croce is buried outside the Square, near the entrance: inside there was no room left.
• In the nearby Santa Maria del Pianto cemetery, part of the same area, rest Totò and, a few meters away, Enrico Caruso.