Cimitero Monumentale Verona

This being my 100th post i have to deliver something special. And for that occasion we went to Italy again. 

Well, not really. We weren't there just to get my next post done, but since we we were there we visited two cemeteries there.

Today it's all about the Cimitero Monumentale Verona.

It is a cemetery just like any other in an medium-sized city in Italy and that means it is absolutely brilliant! Nothing is even close compared to italian cemeteries. Even the big ones i've seen (Berlin, Cologne, Lisboa) are nowhere near when it comes to that. 

I made enough pictures to get this blog going on for long.

Here's a taster:

Some head is missing...

Rust never sleeps.

Berlin Cemeteries: Stahnsdorf

This Summer we had a week in Berlin and since it was my birthday it was kind of a present for me to visit Berlin's largest Cemetery: Stahnsdorf.

It is the second biggest Cemetery in Germany (Hamburg Ohlsdorf is the biggest Park-Cemtery in the world) and it has a strange shabby charm. There are many spots where at first glance you don't notice that this is a cemetery rather than an ordinary wood.

This explained by the history of this cemetery:

It was built in 1908 and during the reign of Adolf Hitler something extraordinay happened: Fascist Germany wanted to redesign Berlin into a vast City named "Germania". And many cemeteries in the City of Berlin were in the way of the monumental (or just mental) planning.

So many graves were moved to the Stahnsdorf cemetery.

After WWII however this cemtery was suddenly on communist ground. And they couldn't be bothered with the preservation of some splendid captialist tombs. So for more than 4 decades everything began to decay (the tombs) and to grow (the woods).

We discovered a part of this cemetery on our own in the morning (after the rain had thankfully stopped) and then we took part at a guided tour for children. It turned out that this guided tour was brilliant! The guide was  very entertaining and still provided plenty of information. We entered several mausoleums and even some crypts with coffins in them!

For further information : Friends of Südwestkirchhof Stahnsdorf

Benches. Quite uncomfortable i presume...

 This is the Headstone of a famous engineer: Edmund Rumpler. An on further examination you'll see that it's not an Angel you see there: It's an Ikarus!

This is the next (and last) celebrity for today: F. W. Murnau. He actually died in Santa Barbara, CA and it took a while to get him back to Berlin because since he knew how to live he was absolutely broke when he died. Friends of him preserved his body and showed him around like an attraction to get the money together for the burial in Germany!

He was originally named Plumpe (as were his brothers) but he deemed this name too dull so he chose his name after a town in Bavaria.

His actual coffin. It's an iron one rather than wood. American custom i'm told.

The next one is a very interesting grave: This expressionistic piece of art is the first grave in the world made out of reinforced concrete, a very modern material at that time (1920)

The concrete Cathedral.

Got very lucky with the sun.

Cemetery Stöcken: Revisit

This is the last Post about my visit to Hannover. It will be fairly large because at the Stöcken Cemetery was the best weather that day and since it was the second time for me there i knew that ther'll be plenty of intersting or beautiful things to shoot...

So let's get straight to the pictures:

Entry and Chapel: Neogothic at it's best!

Back of the Chapel. 

Odd. 

Crazy texture of that sandstone. And not made for eternity  i guess....

How thick can someone get? Why vandalizing this? I'll never get used to things of that kind... 

Hannover Ricklingen

Yeah. I know. I'm a bit of a lazy bastard. It's been quite a while since i've made one but today its right to post about the second cemetery i've visited in Hannover back in April.

It is the "Stadtfriedhof Ricklingen" (City Cemetery Ricklingen). Founded 1908 and containing about 30.000 (dead) people.

It does not contain very much monuments, statues or graves that meet my taste, but there are some gems nonetheless:

Detail of a beautiful angel

The same. This time more of a wideshot...

Tomb of the Mittenzwei Family: According to the booklet this is one of the very early statues of the Cemetery and it is a brilliant piece of art.

Tomb of the Mittenzwei Family

Very moving inscription. Here's a rough translation for all you non-german speaking folks:
"You Dead You Dead
What shall we do
Our life's golden path ended
in dread and night
Because man did too much
Because man thought too little"

Very funny inscription: "Life's not a  Gala-Dinner!"

 The last one is very unprofessional: Out of focus, underexposed and a really dreadful perspective. It made it into this entry because of it's funny inscription.

My excuse: It was very dreadful weather at that time: Quite a biblical downpour with thunder and lightning and all. So it was too dark, too wet and i'm not really fit for treats like this....

Hannover Engesohde Revisit

Very few text this time because i really don't bother to explain when and why i revisited. I also don't bother to tell you that the weather was dreadful and that -thanks for that- there is a weatherproof colonade with some remarkble beautiful sculptures there.

Here we go: