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There are many places you may have never heard of that serve as memento mori- a reminder that we are all mortal, and that not every culture buries their dead six feet underground. Here are eight of them.
Underwater Graveyard
Neptune Memorial Reef, three miles off Key Biscayne, Florida offers a final resting place for those who love the sea. Earthly remains are cremated, then mixed with cement and laid on the ocean floor with a memorial plaque. The cemetery lies 14 meters below the surface.
Hanging Coffins
The limestone cliffs over Sagada in the Philippines seem like an unlikely place for burial. In fact, many folks who died here were never buried, but are still in their coffins hanging from the cliff faces. The oldest coffin identified has been there over a hundred years, although the custom of placing coffins in barely accessible places in the cliffs goes back a couple thousand years. Residents are more likely to be buried underground today.
The Fontanelle Cave Tombs
The Fontanelle Cemetery is located in underground caves in Naples, Italy. The former rock quarries were first used for burials in 1656 as a response to the overwhelming numbers of deaths from the plague. At times, up to 1,500 bodies were left per day! No graves were dug, but bodies were dusted with lime and forgotten. Centuries later, only bones remain. In the 20th century, Italians returned to the caves determined to give respect to the remains by “adopting” a skull. This is especially useful to widows whose husbands never returned from foreign wars in that they could mourn by proxy as they cared for another deceased, if nameless, person. Closed since 1969, the Fontanelle Cemetery has been restored and is now open to the public by reservation.
Colma Necropolis
When San Francisco passed an ordinance prohibiting any new cemeteries in 1900, burials moved to the area around the small town of Colma, California. In 1912, San Francisco began relocating its existing cemeteries to Colma. The town has 17 cemeteries for people and one for pets. The dead outnumber the living by a thousand to one! Colma has 1,500 residents and around 1.5 million graves. Image by Gregory Melle.
The City of the Dead
Dargavs, North Ossetia has a collection of 95 stone constructions known as the City of the Dead. Some are underground, other are above ground, and still others are a little of both. The buildings serve as mausoleums, with a building for each family. Some still contain remains of the dead. Very little is known of necropolis’ origin, but it dates back at several centuries. Image by Dziadek Mroz.
The Skulls of St. Sebastian
St. Sebastian’s Cemetery in Salzburg is the final resting place of some of Austria’s biggest celebrities. Theophrastus Paracelsu, the “father of modern medicine” is interred at St. Sebastian, as well as Mozart’s wife and father, and the controversial Archbishop Wolf Dietrich. St. Sebastian’s, established in 1502, is adorned with skull motifs in every corner. Burials ceased in 1888. The cemetery is now open to the public daily. Image by Curious Expeditions.
Sedlec Ossuary
Sedlec Chapel near Kutná Hora, Czech Republic has been a burial ground for nearly 900 years. In that time, thousands of bodies were laid to rest due to plague, war, and natural causes. Because there is not enough space for a grave for each one, the bones of earlier burials were dug up to make room for more. The Sedlec bone chapel, or ossuary, holds the remains of about 40,000 people. The bones were incorporated into the chapel as art and furnishings by František Rint in 1870. See a 1976 documentary tour of the chapel. Image by Curious Expeditions.
Capuchin Catacombs
The Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo, Italy are home to thousands of mummies on display. Embalmed corpses interred in the catacombs remained preserved better than other burial sites. This may be due to the particular pride Sicilian embalmers take in their art. Many of the corpses are arranged in tableaux that resemble scenes from life. Others are standing up in groups, as if posing for a picture. One of the more famous corpses in the Palermo catacombs is Rosalia Lombardo, who died in 1920 at age two, but whose body has not decomposed. The Capuchin Catacombs are open daily to the public.
See also: Destination Cemeteries.
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Comments (18)
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Hmm… the hanging coffins in China are much more impressive and extraordinary than the ones you’ve listed here in the Philippines. They are pretty much the same (placed on cliff sides in places that are seem inaccessible), except the oldest ones have been dated to be over 1,000 years old. Not to mention they are one of the few remaining artifacts from a tribe that was wiped out over 400 years ago. I saw a nice special on NatGeo about this about a year ago, very interesting.
posted by Todd on 3-5-2009 at 9:17 am
That underwater grave thing is super cool.
posted by bedhead on 3-5-2009 at 11:00 am
There are catacombs (L’Ossuaire Municipal – Wiki) under Paris too, similar to the ones in Naples Sicily. Also to deal w/ high body counts during plague times, the bodies were buried in underground quarries and mines.
posted by Jonny on 3-5-2009 at 12:41 pm
Awesome post! You win Thursday, Miss Cellania.
posted by Southern Buddhist on 3-5-2009 at 2:30 pm
In some places in India (Goa for example) they will hold funerals for the deceased and bury them in a cemetary. After 4-5 years, the bodies will be exhumed from the cemetary, the bones will be cleaned up, placed into a box (not the cardboard kind) and then inserted into a wall (almost like an elementary school cubby) of a building within the cemetary, allowing the burial spot to be used again with the same outcome.
posted by D Baker on 3-5-2009 at 3:47 pm
Thanks for the bit about Colma, CA. We just moved into a house about 5 miles away, and I wondered what was up with all the cemeteries. Not the place to be when the zombie apocalypse comes. ;)
posted by JavaLuv on 3-5-2009 at 4:37 pm
Am I the only one strongly reminded of the Dark Mark from Harry Potter by the image for St. Sebastian’s Cemetary?
posted by Allison on 3-5-2009 at 8:04 pm
I’m a big fan of the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is a miniature city of mausoleums. Lots of famous people are buried there, including Evita, and there is always an enormous pile of flowers stacked up against her mausoleum because the people still love her and bring these flowers… It’s actually a very large cemetery, and you can spend hours in there.
posted by Virginia on 3-5-2009 at 8:30 pm
I remember reading that in New Orleans Bodies are interred above ground on a table. Afer the body has decomposed the bones are pushed to the edge and fall in a pit so as to use the table again. Anyone heard of this??
posted by PT on 3-10-2009 at 11:27 am
PT, I don’t know about all the cemeteries in New Orleans, but there are many, and I’ve never heard of this policy. The most famous ones have above ground stone tombs because of the water table. Families may share tombs, but I haven’t seen any where they remove bones in any way.
posted by Miss Cellania on 3-10-2009 at 12:08 pm
WOW, Todd needs to get a life. GO OUTSIDE
posted by WOW on 3-10-2009 at 7:34 pm
Well this is pretty much a dead topic. Lets bury it and move on. I think I hear your mummy calling.
Ha!…I kill me!
posted by Paul B on 3-14-2009 at 11:07 am
I saw this link referenced at SubliminalMessages.Com and really liked it. Thanks for making my creepy day.
posted by Sam I Yamb on 3-14-2009 at 10:51 pm
Dargavs looks like a hobbit village, it´s so cute! Guess you wouldn´t want to live there though…
On the other hand, I read in a book that in Cairo poor people actually live in their family´s mausoleums because theycan´t afford anywhere else, but they don´t think it´s creepy at all.
posted by Liz on 3-17-2009 at 8:33 am
i totally thought it was the dark mark too!! i wonder if jk rowlings saw that as inspiration for voldemort’s symbol..
posted by aby on 3-23-2009 at 1:24 am
In Rome, there’s a church called Santa Maria della Concezione where they took skeletons and made beautiful images on the walls with them. Definitely worth seeing.
posted by Catherine on 4-1-2009 at 2:00 pm
I hope by the time I die you can request to be buried in outer space and your coffin set a drift that be sick
posted by ??? on 4-7-2009 at 1:43 am
You should also mention the natural mummies of Guanajuato.
posted by Marcos on 5-20-2009 at 10:04 am