Melaten Cemetery, Cologne

Last weekend was finally the chance for me to visit the famous "Melaten-Friedhof" (Melaten Cemetery) in Cologne. It's one of the most important cemeteries in Germany, being one of the first to have a park cemetery and having a vast collection of notable sculptures.

Since our hobby is Geocaching we did two birds with one stone: There is  a multistaged Geocache hidden there which took us on a tour around this beautyful spot.

See for yourself:

Part of a roof on a big mausoleum

Familiar Angel (seen in Hamburg and Hannover as well)

Astonishingly beautiful example

And another one. Trumpet down is quite common though. 

Twenties style. Not roaring but still twenties. 

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My favourite there. Can't say why, but there you are... 

The most famous sculpture there. Let me introduce you "old Nick". 

Old Nick again.

It's a bit of a shame that this one is the most famous one there since it's not my definition of beauty. And it's a bit disappointing, too when you actually get there. It's in a quite corner and surrounded by trees *very* nearby so you are really struggling to get a proper photograph of it since light is everything. You could help yourself with a tripod but i travelled without one. High Iso is the key but then you get high noise as well. So heavy editing and b/w is the solution.

And the really dissapointing thing about "Old Nick": The scythe is made of plastic. Ts.

Johannis Cemetery Bielefeld -revisit-

It was a long time since i've actually visited a cemtery and that itself is a shame. But i was lucky yesterday, because the whole family (and a befriended one) went with me because we were out geocaching.

It happened that one multi-staged geocache is acutally located on the Johannis Cemetery in Bielefeld. And this Cemetery is my favourite within reach of my hometown.

While the others were searching for the hints for the cache i was looking around to take beautiful (or at least interesting) pictures. The Cemetery itself is not that huge, but there is still plenty of space for new graves. So at some places it is more than a park than a cemetery.

And it is a bit of a celebrity cemetery for all the rich and famous people that lived and died in Bielefeld. Not that many, though. Bielefeld is not that famous...

I found some nice examples of traditional cemetery sculptures there, but the more interesting ones are quite modern. They are not always beautiful but they are interesting.

Here's what i've done yesterday:

Fine example of beehive on a grave.

 This beauty is one of my favourite. She's a good example that modern art is not neccessarily ugly. Quite the opposite.

Another fine example of modern art

"oldschool-angel"

Art Deco, Detail on a huge Tombstone

The most modern Angel i've come across so far.

Male grief. Or practicing camouflage?

Bârad Dûr?

The beautiful Saccomanno-clone

The "original" is to be found in Staglieno, Genoa