Cemeteries are an integral part of the living world. The eerie corners associated with the decay and fragility of human life, many do not cause a desire to once again walk through them. The havens of the dead are always shrouded in mystical stories, and chilling legends even go about some graves.
However, there are unique cemeteries that are more reminiscent of art monuments. Included in the tourist routes, they do not look like places of mourning, but remind with architecture and special majesty real open-air museums.
Today's story will be about one of these corners of silence, similar to a small city with narrow streets, flower beds, unusual sculptures, incredible beauty crypts and small chapels.
The most expensive cemetery in the world
Argentina is a country that made a national memorial from the cemetery, which was recognized as one of its main attractions. The Recoleta Necropolis is the most aristocratic and famous on the whole globe. Located in a prestigious area where the very rich people of Buenos Aires live, it occupies a vast territory of six hectares.
Surprisingly, wealthy citizens of the country are cheaper to buy a luxury cottage near the cemetery, but not a place on it. Therefore, burials in the necropolis in recent years are extremely rare.
History of the Necropolis
The history of this ancient place dates back to the beginning of the XVIII century, when the Franciscans came to the city of Buenos Aires and founded their monastery on the outskirts - a wasteland called Recoleta ("Ascetic"). Having built a small temple, El Pilar, they attended to the burial place of the servants of the Lord. And after a hundred years, the governor considered it necessary to turn the place for the burial of monks into the first public cemetery.
When the outbreak of a terrible disease that claimed thousands of lives began to shake the city, most wealthy citizens were hiding from the yellow fever epidemic , moving to the very outskirts of Buenos Aires.
From public to elite
Gradually, the provincial corner grew, turning into the most prestigious area in which all the rich lived. Accordingly, the local cemetery of Recoleta has changed its social status to an elite one, and now all respected citizens of high society were buried on it. And no one will ever call him “ascetic”. And the poor from different parts of the city found the last refuge in the west of Buenos Aires.
The rich, wishing to rest in the most beautiful and expensive crypts, were unhappy with the rather modest necropolis and advocated its reconstruction, which took place in 1881, turning the local cemetery into a real work of art.
The most unusual city of the dead
The cemetery of Argentina, recognized in 2003 as an architectural monument, is visited by a huge number of tourists who are surprised at the grandeur of such a place and note its unusualness in comparison with other places of rest.
At the entrance, everyone is greeted with neoclassical-style gates with four Greek columns. On the stone slabs, the dates of the year of foundation of the necropolis (1822), its first reconstruction (1881) and the third (2003) are engraved, while for some reason they kept silent about the second.
Symbols of mortality of life
An inscription in Latin “Rest in Peace” is engraved on the outside of the facade, facing the eyes of visitors, and from the inside of the cemetery the phrase “Hope in God” as if conveys the address of the deceased to the living.
On the columns, curious visitors will find pagan symbols that speak of a short stay of a person in the world: scissors, which at any moment cut the thread of life, a cross and an urn as signs of death, inverted burning torches and water clocks telling about the transience of time.
For many, such symbols in a former monastery will not be surprising, because Argentina is a country in which Christian traditions are closely intertwined with pagan ones.
Crypt rental
The crypts located inside have long become family burials, in which more than one generation rests. Since this cemetery is considered one of the most expensive in the world, many families only rent tombs for several years, where the body of the deceased is located. Three years later, the crypt is freed, and the remains are reburied in a special wall on the territory of a magnificent necropolis.
Tombs-palaces
Recoleta Cemetery, located inside the richest city, has become a symbol of its "golden age". The whole nobility and the Buenos Aires elite, taking care of their future shelter, hired the best architects from other countries of the world to build unusual crypts-mausoleums, reminiscent of palaces in luxury, in which wealthy citizens lived.
An amazing city in the city is famous for unusual monumental crypts resembling Greek temples, which is very symbolic. The oldest burials reflected the spirit of freedom-loving Argentines, thus expressing their desire to free themselves from the religious background associated with the yoke of colonizing the country.
The quiet Recoleta cemetery (Argentina) is an amazing place where fancy Gothic-style buildings combine with magnificent palaces and strict mausoleums. Almost five thousand crypts and about 350 thousand graves are more modestly snugly located in the quarters of a gigantic city that cannot be circumvented in one day.
Well-groomed and abandoned resting places
Inside many tombs, relatives hang curtains, plant fresh flowers in vases and burning lamps, thus creating a homely atmosphere for their departed loved ones. There are also equipped with mini-chapels, in which the living pray, remembering the dead. Some tombs go down several levels underground.
Next to the manicured crypts, generously decorated with bas-reliefs and stained-glass windows, there are also abandoned ones, with traces of a long desolation, but closed with all the bolts. It can be seen that no one is caring for them, and the buildings are gradually being destroyed. Most likely, the last of the noble Argentine families rested many years ago and lies inside.
But, according to the rules, no one can be reburied: once a purchased place is forever owned by the owner.
Grave of the first lady
The burial place of the famous inhabitants of Argentina is a monumental architectural monument, in front of which the tourists who came to the cemetery for the first time feel a little lost. You can roam the streets of the silent city for a very long time, touching the history of life and death.
For most visitors to the cemetery, the name Eva Peron will be the most famous. Local guides will tell about the difficult fate of the people's favorite. A woman who found peace only 24 years after her death lived a very short life. The death of the first lady was a real tragedy for Argentina, plunged into mourning for four weeks. So that everyone could say goodbye to Eva, her body was embalmed and put on public display.
But the Argentinean “Princess Diana” had more than fans. Her opponents, who believed that a woman could not be among the nobility, stole the body, hiding it outside the country. Buried under a false name, Peron was dug up and buried next to the husband-president, but after the military coup the remains were again disturbed.
Now her modest grave in the Recoleta cemetery , which always has fresh flowers, is covered with lead plates so that not a single crazy fan or vandal can dig out the embalmed body.
Spouses looking in different directions
Of particular interest to visitors is the family crypt of Del Carril. The tough politician and his wife quarreled over the debts of a lover of living in a big way. The stern husband did not pay for them, and the wife, who was 25 years younger, was so offended that she stopped talking to him. For thirty years their family life lasted, not broken by a single word.
After the husband’s funeral, the woman made her will, in which she mentioned that their stone statues in the crypt must be turned with their backs to each other, emphasizing that the afterlife will not reconcile them. Surprised tourists daily examine the monument, which has become a dedication of women's revenge.
Celebrity cemetery
Do not count all the famous personalities of Argentina buried in the cemetery. Here lies the Nobel Prize laureate Leloir, whose palace is considered the most expensive and stands out against the rest of the gilded statue of Christ, located above.
The tomb of President Julio Roca, the grave of the founder of the Navy Brown and his daughter, who committed suicide, the crypt of the writer Adolf Bio, a graffiti-covered mausoleum of Colonel Police Falcon attract the attention of foreign guests.
In order not to get lost on a vast territory and find burials of your own interest, it is recommended to purchase the Recoleta card. But it is best to join the tour, where the local guide will tell you all the interesting legends of the ancient necropolis, which you can listen to for hours.
Ghost of suicide
But here are not only cemetery’s graves. The most famous story, word of mouth, will be about the guard of the cemetery, which for thirty years saved up money to buy a place here. As soon as the required amount was found, he ordered a sculpture from an Italian master.
After establishing his full-length marble image on the grave, a 40-year-old man quit and fired a pistol at himself. Considering that his old dream came true, the caretaker did not want to continue living. Necropolis workers say that a ghost ringing keys often appears at night. And no one knows if this is a story made up, or if the restless soul of a suicide wanders in the dark .
Romantic legend
Many legends are associated with the young daughter of the famous writer Velloso, who died at the age of 15. Above her grave is a marble niche, on which lies a snow-white sculpture depicting a sleeping beauty. The inconsolable mother spent a lot of time in the cemetery, mourning her child.
There is a romantic legend about how a young man fell in love with a pretty girl whom he recently met. Late in the evening, seeing her home, he threw his coat over the frozen shoulders of a woman in a white dress. The next day, when the guy burnt by passions came to his mother, he was overwhelmed by real horror: he learned that his beloved had recently died. And when the girl’s mother brought him to the famous cemetery, the first thing they saw was the clothes lying in the crypt. They say that the young man went crazy and committed suicide, and the dead girl is called "lady in white."
Light sadness
In the silent world of the dead, not only tourists roam: the cemetery caretakers breed cats that bask in the sunburnt graves. Well-fed and imposing residents of the dead city, according to ancient legends, see what is not given to people to observe.
Death is a natural process that cuts off a person’s life. Beauty, which cannot be described in words, causes burning interest of all who arrived in Buenos Aires. The solemn cemetery of Recoleta does not cause visitors a sense of hopeless sorrow. A place where you can philosophize and think about the transience and transience of being, sets up for a certain wave, the main emotion of which will be light sadness.