The Monumental Cemetery is located at Borgo Palazzo, one of the historic quarters of Lower town of Bergamo, to which it is connected by a long avenue. Not far away stands the equally ancient Borgo Santa Caterina.
The origin of the site was complex, linked to the fate of the cemeteries that preceded it. In 1810, following the Napoleonic edicts, three cemeteries were inaugurated in the city: one in the area of S. Lucia (today Via Nullo), another in Valverde and the third in the plain of S. Maurizio. Three years later, the S. Lucia cemetery was closed due to unsuitable location and replaced by the S. Giorgio cemetery in Malpensata. The three cemeteries remained in operation throughout the 1800s, but between 1895 and 1896, for reasons including hygiene, they were suppressed and a single facility near the S. Maurizio cemetery was established.
That one structure is precisely today's Monumental Cemetery, the competition for which was won by Milanese architect Ernesto Pirovano. During construction, the St. Maurice cemetery ended up being incorporated, rather than flanked, by the new one, and was designated for children's burials.
The solemn and original entrance area, overlooked by the Famedium, was the first part to be completed, at the same time as the evening forepart.
In July 1904 the first burials took place. Work was finally completed in 1912, only to resume in 1945 with a change to the central layout of the chapel, which saw the altar moved close to the opening to the cemetery.
A square precedes the imposing elevation of the complex, covered in Brembate stump and composed of a semicircular body on a high podium, with two rectilinear wings corresponding to the entrances.
The central axis is highlighted by the staircase, at the top of which rises the truncated pyramid of the famedio, connected to the side chapels by colonnades decorated with ivy leaves and berries, a motif that returns in the wrought-iron gate, by Enrico Colombo of Milan. On the sides of the portal, a bas-relief band in gentile stump illustrates the Miserere, by sculptor Ernesto Bazzaro; the other decorative elements are by Emilio Buzzetti. Symbolic reminders of the sacredness and character of the place are found in the capitals of the inner portico of the foreparts.
The famedio contains the remains of those who stood out and brought prestige to the city, including the scholar Ciro Caversazzi, politician Angelo Mazzi, maestro Gianandrea Gavazzeni, and composers Antonio Cagnoni and Alessandro Nini.
The forepart that completes the main front to the east was built in the late 1950s, designed by the Municipal Technical Office.
The Monumental Cemetery is located at Borgo Palazzo, one of the historic quarters of Lower town of Bergamo, to which it is connected by a long avenue. Not far away stands the equally ancient Borgo Santa Caterina.
The origin of the site was complex, linked to the fate of the cemeteries that preceded it. In 1810, following the Napoleonic edicts, three cemeteries were inaugurated in the city: one in the area of S. Lucia (today Via Nullo), another in Valverde and the third in the plain of S. Maurizio. Three years later, the S. Lucia cemetery was closed due to unsuitable location and replaced by the S. Giorgio cemetery in Malpensata. The three cemeteries remained in operation throughout the 1800s, but between 1895 and 1896, for reasons including hygiene, they were suppressed and a single facility near the S. Maurizio cemetery was established.
That one structure is precisely today's Monumental Cemetery, the competition for which was won by Milanese architect Ernesto Pirovano. During construction, the St. Maurice cemetery ended up being incorporated, rather than flanked, by the new one, and was designated for children's burials.
The solemn and original entrance area, overlooked by the Famedium, was the first part to be completed, at the same time as the evening forepart.
In July 1904 the first burials took place. Work was finally completed in 1912, only to resume in 1945 with a change to the central layout of the chapel, which saw the altar moved close to the opening to the cemetery.
A square precedes the imposing elevation of the complex, covered in Brembate stump and composed of a semicircular body on a high podium, with two rectilinear wings corresponding to the entrances.
The central axis is highlighted by the staircase, at the top of which rises the truncated pyramid of the famedio, connected to the side chapels by colonnades decorated with ivy leaves and berries, a motif that returns in the wrought-iron gate, by Enrico Colombo of Milan. On the sides of the portal, a bas-relief band in gentile stump illustrates the Miserere, by sculptor Ernesto Bazzaro; the other decorative elements are by Emilio Buzzetti. Symbolic reminders of the sacredness and character of the place are found in the capitals of the inner portico of the foreparts.
The famedio contains the remains of those who stood out and brought prestige to the city, including the scholar Ciro Caversazzi, politician Angelo Mazzi, maestro Gianandrea Gavazzeni, and composers Antonio Cagnoni and Alessandro Nini.
The forepart that completes the main front to the east was built in the late 1950s, designed by the Municipal Technical Office.
