Death, frightening and bewitching at the same time, has attracted the attention of writers, artists and architects for centuries, and the aesthetics of death has excited the minds of philosophers.
We will not speculate about what is beyond a very thin line, but will stroll through the most beautiful cemeteries in the world, where time has stopped in the majestic crypts, cold tears have long dried on our cheeks at stone statues, and the reposed souls peacefully sleep under the rustle of the ocean waves.
Pere Lachaise
Parisian Pere Lachaise Cemetery is the largest museum of tombstone sculpture, the most visited cemetery in the world, a historical landmark and a walking place. There are tens of thousands of graves, including the burials of Honore de Balzac, Georges Bizet, Edith Piaf, Moliere, Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust and many others.
Cimitirul Vesel, Romania
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In the north of Romania, there is a Merry Cemetery (yes, it’s funny). There are several hundred burials here, but it is famous for its carved crosses and tombstones painted in bright blue and decorated with simple drawings with episodes from the lives of the dead and funny poems.
St Andrews Cathedral Cemetery in Scotland
Over the course of nine centuries, St Andrews Cathedral has turned into stone ruins surrounded by a cemetery. On a high cliff overlooking the North Sea, you can admire medieval tombstones touched by decay and ruthless time, read beautiful epitaphs or meet ghosts, which, according to eyewitnesses, abound here.
Okunoin, Japan
Japan's largest cemetery exudes Buddhist calm and serenity. More than 200,000 Buddhist monks, including the master Kūkai, are awaiting reincarnation here. There are strange memorials in the cemetery: a termite monument from a pesticide company and a huge coffee cup in memory of the employees of the coffee company.
Waverley Cemetery, Australia
Here are buried the writer Henry Lawson, the Irish rebel Michael Dwyer, the athlete Victor Trump. The cemetery is famous for being on a cliff top overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Angels glowing in the sun's rays, crosses and obelisks, the quiet lapping of waves and silence - here they really find peace.
La Recoleta, Buenos Aires
The cemetery looks more like an old town with quirky Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Baroque and Neo-Gothic architecture. Touching sculptures of angels coexist with exquisite mausoleums and ornate crypts. An unusually majestic necropolis that hides a lot of secrets …
Bonaventure Cemetery, Georgia
Mighty oaks, tombstones and sculptures covered with moss are terribly beautiful and mysterious here. The necropolis in the Gothic style unwittingly evokes thoughts of those who have risen from the graves - these are the monuments we most often see in American horror films.
Mount of Olives, Jerusalem
The Bible says that on the day of the Last Judgment, the dead will begin to rise right here. The cemetery is over 3000 years old. Scattered with sandy tombs, the Mount of Olives looks out over Jerusalem to the west and the desert to the east. This is the resting place of rabbis, prophets and Israeli Prime Minister M. Begin.
Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington
The graceful cemetery with orderly rows of tombstones has become the final haven for more than 400,000 American veterans and their families. Among the perfectly mowed lawns and age-old trees are the Memorial to the Unknown Soldier, John F. Kennedy's burial site of eternal fire, the tombs of Pierre L'Enfant, Thurgood Marshall and Medgar Evers.
Highgate Cemetery, London
Victorian crypts can reveal many eerie mysteries - the cemetery was once home to the occult. The ivy-covered obelisks, the ancient Lebanese circle cedars and the winding paths of the Egyptian street among the Gothic tombstones are chilling. Among the 170,000 deceased are Lucian Freud, the writer George Eliot. There is a huge bust on the grave of Karl Marx. Interesting is the grave of the poisoned Alexander Litvinenko, who was buried in a lead coffin due to the high level of radiation in the body.
Assistance Cultural Center, Copenhagen
The cemetery is so beautiful that it is used as a park by locals who go there for picnics. Assistens became the resting place of famous Danes. There are no fanciful monuments, mourning sculptures, or huge crypts. Hans Christian Andersen has a high and simple tombstone, the epitaph of the philosopher Seren Kierkegaard "I am the only" makes you think about the meaning of life.
Green-Wood, Brooklyn, New York
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Boss Tweed, Leonard Bernstein, Civil War officers - they all found peace in the Brooklyn Hills. In the middle of the twentieth century, it was the second most visited tourist destination after Niagara Falls. The green cemetery has long become a place for walking: a picturesque view of Manhattan opens up from here, and ponds, lakes and well-groomed green grass do not in any way inspire philosophical reflections on the corruption of life.
Mary Symon