Digging around in Europe’s Best Cemeteries
One of the best ways – and one of the most inexpensive – to experience the history of a new place is to visit its cemeteries. Even the smallest village graveyard will tell you which winter had a major blizzard, how big the families were from generation to generation and who the town’s have’s and have-not’s were. It’s all there, written in stone. As it would be impossible to sum up every cemetery in Europe, I’ll have to leave the explorations to you and concentrate on five of the most impressive resting places on the continent.
American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-mere, France
A humongous operation like D-Day deserves a humongous memorial, Colleville-sur-mere’s American Cemetery does a great job of paying tribute to all the men who lost their lives storming Hitler’s Fortress Europe. Set majestically on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach, site of some of the day’s fiercest fighting, the cemetery contains the remains of almost 9,500 American military personnel. The cemetery was established on June 8, 1944, just days after the invasion. The rows and rows of simple white crosses and Jewish stars have been immortalized in such films as “Saving Private Ryan,” and the impressive Memorial consists of a semicircular colonnade featuring maps of the military operations, all surrounding a bronze statue. There’s also a reflecting pool, the names of 1,557 Americans who lost their lives in the conflict but could not be located and/or identified and a time capsule to be opened on June 6, 2044. Though the cemetery and the landing beaches are within striking distance of several major cities, the closest hotels can also let you experience the charm of the villages of Normandy.
Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, Paris, France
Though known primarily as the final resting place of Jim Morrison, the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise is so much more. As international as the city of Paris, the cemetery is home to the American Doors singer, the Irish novelist, poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde and the French-Polish composer Frédéric François Chopin, as well as such French luminaries as Edith Piaf, Honoré Daumier and Eugène Delacroix. Thought to be the world’s most-visited cemetery, Père-Lachaise attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. The cemetery is home to three World War I memorials, and you can visit the 1682 Jesuit house belonging to Père François de la Chaise himself, the confessor to Louis XIV in the 17th century. The cemetery was established by Napoleon in 1804 but was considered to be too far outside the city to attract many funerals. Now in the centre of the city, this cemetery of over 300,000 residents is close to many great Paris hotels.
Catacombe di Roma, Rome, Italy
If you’d like to go further back in history and you’d like to get closer to the permanent residents of a cemetery, then come on down to the Catacombe di Roma. Dating from the 2nd century CE, this vast network of tunnels has seen much pillaging, sacking, destruction and expansion over the centuries. Those most widely known for its Christian burials, there are also many Pagans and many Jews, reflecting the ever-changing Roman population, located both separately and mixed all together. Up to four stories of tunnels run for many kilometres, and in addition to the many generations of Romans, the tunnels feature stunning examples of early Christian art dating from before 400 CD, as well as much Jewish art. Responsibility for the catacombs presently rests with the Pope, and excavations are constantly underway, increasing our knowledge of some very interesting periods of Roman history. Once you return to the land of the living, you’ll find a wide variety of Rome hotels.
Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague, Czech Republic
The oldest preserved tombstone in the Old Jewish Cemetery of Prague is of one Avigdor Kara, who did in 1489. Over the next 300 years, tens of thousands of the city’s Jewish residents were laid to rest here. Though there are 12,000 tombstones that can be identified, the cemetery contains layer upon layer upon layer of graves (12 layers in some places), and the number of occupants is thought to be closer to 100,000. The sight of the masses of graves, piled atop each other and sticking in every direction like crooked teeth is a truly unique sight. Set in the Jewish Quarter of Prague, the cemetery is the final resting place of Renaissance scholar, historian, mathematician and astronomer David Gans, Mayor of the Jewish Town Mordechai Maisel and Rabbi Löw, forever famous for his association with Prague’s mythical clay creature, the Golem. Set in the centre of the old city, the cemetery is conveniently located for many Prague hotels.
Highgate Cemetery, London, UK
As disorderly as the cemetery of Prague is, that’s how orderly London’s Highgate Cemetery is. Don’t get me wrong, this classic English graveyard is filled to the brim with gothic graves, tombs and buildings. It’s also the final resting place of such diverse personalities as novelist George Eliot, author of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” Douglas Adams and that grand old communist himself, Karl Marx himself. Two more recent arrivals are Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren and the actor Sir Ralph Richardson. The cemetery is also infamous as being the site of the Highgate Vampire of the 1970′s. Set in the north of London, the cemetery has been designated Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. The northwestern wooded area was opened in 1839, as part of a plan to provide seven large around the outside of London, and it quickly became a fashionable address in which to spend eternity. The grounds are full of trees, shrubbery and wild flowers and are a haven for birds and small animals like foxes, giving it the feeling of a park, and the oldest section boasts an impressive collection of Victorian mausoleums and gravestones. The nearest transport link, the Archway Tube Station, but there are also many excellent hotels in the area.
