The cities of the dead: Italy’s monumental cemeteries of the nineteenth century

The cities of the dead: Italy’s monumental cemeteries of the nineteenth century

A talk by Dr Hannah Malone

Italians have a special relationship with their dead and that relationship gave shape to Italy’s modern cemeteries. Whereas until the late eighteenth century the dead had been buried in urban churches and graveyards, from the early 1800s, the prohibition of burial within cities across Europe led to the creation of new cemeteries, which were suburban, public, secular, and socially inclusive. Their importance reflected the celebration of death in an era of Romanticism and individualism. Particularly in Italy, many cities built new cemeteries that were unparalleled in their scale and grandeur. Although Romantic culture was widespread throughout Europe, Italy’s cemeteries of the nineteenth century were distinctive in that they were monumental rather than landscaped, and unique in their size and cost.

Drawing on her monograph, Architecture, Death and Nationhood: Monumental Cemeteries of Nineteenth-Century Italy (Routledge, 2017), and discussed at the time in Mausolus, this talk will explore Italy’s monumental cemeteries as a distinctly Italian phenomenon. Dr Hannah Malone is based at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Centre for the History of Emotions in Berlin having previously studied at Magdalen College Cambridge.

Price: £5.00

https://www.mmtrust.org.uk/events.php