A very special appointment with the Monumental in Milan. The cemetery that not only lets the dead rest, but that reveals and tells their history and profiles. Here, more than anywhere else, illustrious personalities are buried and centuries-old stories are told. So let's see together five curiosities about the Monumental Cemetery of Milan… that you just don't know!
When the Monumental Cemetery of Milan was born
The history of the central cemetery of Milan, located right in the heart of the capital city of Italian fashion, is very ancient and controversial. Its construction dates back to 1837. Following a tender, the architect Maciachini won its construction with the works that began in 1864. The style of this monumental cemetery is iconic and Byzantine, with an architectural excursus able to pass from the Romanesque to the Gothic style with great versatility. But let's see together five curiosities about the Monumental Cemetery of Milan!
1. The Famedio del Monumentale was to be just a church
Just at the entrance to the Monumental Cemetery of Milan, there is a large Byzantine style church, later called "Famedio". Inside it, starting from the end of the nineteenth century, it was decided to preserve and entomb great and famous Milanese personalities. Illustrious men or men with particular positive merits. Among these stands out the figure of Alessandro Manzoni, one of the first Milanese to be welcomed by this space in the heart of the city.
2. Not only famous people but also prominent families
If on the one hand in the "Temple of Fame" or in the Famedio, there was a precise choice or that of letting people with particular merits reside there, on the other hand it was not so for several Milanese bourgeois families. Prominent personalities who have thus decided to found their own chapel or shrine in the Monumental of Milan. Among these stands out the Cappella dei Bocconi, Campari, Bracco, Brambilla and the family of Giovanni Treccani, the founder of the universal encyclopedia of the same name.
3. Inside the Famedio today, also Enzo Jannacci
Next to the names of Alessandro Manzoni, Giuseppe Verdi and again Alda Merini and several others, today the Famedio has also been enriched by the presence of the late Italian singer-songwriter Enzo Jannacci. Last illustrious Italian to have entered the Temple of Eternal Fame.
4. There is also a book on the Monumental Cemetery of Milan
The history of the inhabitants of the Monumental cemetery is long and interesting. Among chapels, newsstands and evocative tombs, walking through this cemetery has something exciting and deeply linked to the history of the city. Carla de Bernardi is well aware of this. In her book “Forget me not” she illustrated the history and events of the Monumental with thirty-eight itineraries to follow.
5. A feline colony at the Monumentale in Milan
The cemetery also houses cats that can move freely between the newsstands giving an even more appearance suggestive to this sacred space. The colony of cats is regularly registered in the municipality and receives support and help from the numerous volunteers who take care of it.
