The Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno is, as Ernest Hemingway used to
say, “one of the wonders of the world”. Set in one of the eastern districts of Genoa, Italy,
Staglieno is as much a sculpture garden as it is a cemetery. It was designed in
the early XIX century by one of the most appreciated architects in Genoa, Carlo Barabino, and
its layout recalls the topography of the city itself.
The Cemetery
of Staglieno is not just
a monument to the bourgeois culture of the XIX century, but also one of the
main examples of funerary sculpture collection of all time, with its thousands
of statues, mausoleums and monuments from all styles and
epoques since 1851. Its typically Italian flamboyance is given by the
combination between deeply religious statues and a large number of
partially clothed or entirely nude granite and marble female figures reclining
languidly on sarcophagi or embracing tombstones, the feeling of mourning and
grieving for the departed being toned down by the brighter view of
life-celebrating sensuality.
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