The Cimitero Monumentale is one of Milan‘s two major cemeteries, the other being the Cimitero Maggiore. It is well-known for its numerous artistic graves and monuments. It was designed by architect Carlo Maciachini (1818-1899) to consolidate many minor cemeteries that were formerly distributed across the city into a single area.
It was officially opened in 1866 and has since been filled with a diverse collection of modern and ancient Italian sculptures, Greek temples, magnificent obelisks, and other unique works, including a scaled-down reproduction of Trajan’s Column. Many of the graves were designed by artists such as Adolfo Gi Ponti, Agenore Fabbri, Wildt, Medardo Rosso, Arturo Martini, Giacomo Manzù, Lucio Fontana, Floriano Bodini, and Gi Pomodoro for prominent manufacturing dynasties.
The primary entry is through the enormous Famedio, a magnificent Neo-Medieval style marble and A stone building containing the graves of the town’s inhabitants and country’s most distinguished residents, including author Alessandro Manzoni.
Designed Monumental Cemetery
The Civico Mausoleo Palanti, created by architect Mario Palanti, is a mausoleum for deserving “Milanesi,” or Milanese residents. In the center is a memorial to about 800 Milanese killed in Nazi concentration camps and was created by the group BBPR, which was established by notable exponents of Italian rationalist architecture, including Gianluigi Banfi.
There is a sector of the cemetery dedicated to persons who do not practice the Catholic faith, as well as a Jewish area. A permanent display of prints, pictures, and maps tracing the cemetery’s history is located at the entrance. It has two battery-powered electric hearses from the 1920s.
The Jewish Section in Monumental Cemetery
Carlo Maciachini planned the portion, which opened in 1872 to replace the cemeteries at Porta Tenaglia, Porta Magenta, and Porta Vercellina. It is located east of the Catholic cemetery and has its entrance. The region was created as a result of a 1913 expansion to the south and east. The center structure was once the cemetery’s entrance.
Because the cemetery is divided into 6 fields and an extension on the east side, tomb numbering is repeated. There are also three common fields, one for children, where burials took place between 1873 and 1894, with little gravestones on the ground commemorating the names and dates of death.
The monuments, which date from 1866, are positioned along the pathways. There are also two Maciachini-designed family shrines, Columbaria and Ossuary along the north and west cemetery walls, and interment in the central structure. There are 1778 graves, some in memorials of persons slain in Nazi concentration camps or murders on Lake Maggiore, especially at Meina.
There are several artistically significant monuments erected by notable architects and sculptors, as documented in the guidebook by Giovanna Ginex and Ornella Selvafolta.
Architects who worked in the Jewish sector
The taking-after planners have worked within the Jewish segment: Carlo Maciachini (Davide Leonino and Pisa sanctums), Ercole Balossi Merlo (Leon David Levi hallowed place), Giovanni Ceruti (Vitali sanctum), Cesare Mazzocchi (Giulio Foligno holy place), Giovanni Battista Bossi (Anselmo de Benedetti tomb), Luigi Conconi (Segre holy place), Carlo Meroni (Taranto tomb), Manfredo d’Urbino (Jarach holy place, Mayer tomb, Besso tomb, Gigiotti Zanini (Zanini tomb), Landmark to the Jewish Saints of Nazism), Adolfo Valabrega (Moisé Foligno holy place), Luigi Perrone (Goldfinger sanctum). Artists whose work is found here incorporate Mario Quadrelli (Pisa hallowed place), Giuseppe Daniele Benzoni (Ottolenghi Finzi tomb), Luigi Vimercati (Estella Jung tomb), Agostino Caravati (Alessandro Forti tomb), Rizzardo Galli (Vittorio Finzi tomb), Attilio Prendoni (Errera and Conforti tomb), Enrico Cassi (De Danino’s tomb), Eduardo Ximenes (Treves holy place), Eugenio Pellini (Bettino Levi tomb), Fratelli Bonfanti (Davide and Beniamino Foà tomb), Enrico Astorri (Carolina Padova and Fanny Levi Cammeo tomb), Giulio Branca (Giovanni Norsa tomb), Egidio Boninsegna (Giuseppe Levi tomb), Giannino Castiglioni (Ettore Levis and Goldfinger tombs), Adolfo Wildt (Cesare Sarfatti tomb), Dario Viterbo (Levi Minzi columbarium), Arrigo Minerbi (Renato del Damage tomb), Roberto Terracini (Nino Colombo tomb).
The central building was improved in May 2015 with imaginative windows that speak to the Twelve Tribes of Israel by the craftsman Diego Pennacchio Ardemagni.
Crematorium in Monumental Cemetery
The cemetery is home to the cremation Temple, the first cremation in the Western world. The crematorium opened in 1876 and was in use until 1992. The structure also serves as a columbarium. Designed in Greek Revival style, as were other early crematoria in Italy.
Famous graves in Monumental Cemetery
Throughout the cemetery, signals direct visitors to some of the most notable tombs and structures. The following people are buried at the cemetery:
- Alberto Ascari (1918–1955), Formula One champion driver
- Gae Aulenti (1927–2012), architect
- Antonio Ascari (1888–1925), Grand Prix champion driver
- Ernesto Bazzaro (1859–1937), sculptor
- Agostino Bertani (1812–1886), a revolutionary, physician
- Luca Beltrami (1854–1933), architect
- Antonio Bernocchi (1859–1939), industrialist
- Arrigo Boito (1842–1918), composer, librettist
- Lelio Basso (1903–1978), politician
- Camillo Boito (1836–1914), architect
- Gianroberto Casaleggio (1954–2016), entrepreneur, political activist
- Carlo Cattaneo (1801–1869), philosopher, patriot
Monumental Cemetery in Milan, Italy - Gaspare Campari (1828–1882), drink maker
- Gino Bramieri (1928–1996), comedian and actor
- Alfredo Catalani (1854–1893), composer
- Camilla Cederna (1911–1997), editor, writer
- Filippo Filippi (1830–1887), journalist, music critic
- Franco Corelli (1921–2003), opera tenor
- Dario Four (1926–2016), 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature
- Philippe Daverio (1949–2020), art historian
- Walter Chiari (1924–1991), actor
- Valentina Cortese (1923–2019), actress
- Giangiacomo Feltrinelli (1926–1972), publisher, businessman
- Candido Cannavò (1930–2009), journalist
Gallery in Monumental Cemetery
- Mausoleum of Antonio Bernocchi by Giannino Castiglioni in (1930s)
- Campari family tomb, the Last Supper
- Arturo Toscanini’s tomb
- Morgagni family monument
- Cemetery section from above
Hotels near Monumental Cemetery, Milan
- Porta Garibaldi
- Mini loft Moscova
- Via Volta Apartment @Moscova
- Hotel VIU Milan
- Luxury Apartment Fioravanti
- Residenza Porta Volta
- Residenza CenisioOpens in new window
- NH Milano Palazzo MoscovaOpens in new window
- Milano Verticale | UNA EsperienzeOpens in new window
- BB Hotels Aparthotel IsolaOpens in new window
