The Monumental Cemetery is located at Borgo Palazzo, one of the historic quarters of Lower Bergamo, to which it is connected by a long avenue.
Not far away stands the equally ancient Borgo Santa Caterina.
The genesis 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 (now Nullo Street), 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, it was decided to suppress them and create a single structure near the S. Maurizio cemetery.
That single structure is precisely today’s Cimitero Monumentale, the competition for which was won by Milanese architect Ernesto Pirovano.
During the works, the St. Maurice Cemetery ended up being incorporated into, rather than flanked by, the new one, and was earmarked for children’s burials.
The solemn and original entrance area, overlooked by the Famedio, 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 anticipates the imposing elevation of the complex, clad in Brembate log and composed of a semicircular body on a high podium, with two rectilinear wings corresponding to the entrances.
The central axis is underscored 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 Milanese Enrico Colombo.
Ai fianchi del portale, una fascia a bassorilievo in ceppo gentile illustra il Miserere, by sculptor Ernesto Bazzaro; the other decorative elements are by Emilio Buzzetti.
Richiami simbolici alla sacralità e al carattere del luogo si incontrano nei capitelli del porticato interno degli avancorpi.
The famedio houses the remains of those who distinguished themselves by bringing prestige to the city, including the man of letters 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, based on a design by the Municipal Technical Office.