GRAVEYARD

The Melbourne General Cemetery is a large necropolis located 2 km north of the city of Melbourne in the suburb of Carlton North.  The cemetery was opened on 1 June 1853, and the Old Melbourne Cemetery (on the site of what is now the Queen Victoria Market) was closed the next year.  The Melbourne Cemetery has much history and home to more than half a million stories.  This cemetery is full of fiery preachers, con men, courageous women, scandals, disasters and joyous occasions. Musicians, actors, scientists and ordinary people who have helped make Melbourne the metropolis it is now. The grey tones of this photo seem to suit the mood of the graveyard...

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

MELBOURNE GENERAL CEMETERY

The Melbourne General Cemetery is a large (43 hectare) necropolis located 2 km north of the city of Melbourne in the suburb of Carlton North. The cemetery was established in 1852 and opened on 1st June 1853, and the Old Melbourne Cemetery (on the site of what is now the Queen Victoria Market) was closed the next year. The grounds feature several heritage buildings, many in bluestone, including a couple of chapels and a number of cast iron pavilions. The gatehouses are particularly notable, especially the one at the main gate, shown here. It is presently being used as offices for the cemetery staff.

The Melbourne Cemetery has much history and home to more than half a million stories. This cemetery is full of fiery preachers, con men, courageous women, scandals, disasters and joyous occasions. Musicians, actors, scientists and ordinary people who have helped make Melbourne the metropolis it is now. A miscellany of photos today of monuments, statues, mausolea and graves.

Indulge me my whim of colouring these shots with a "vintage" colour filter. It seemed to suit the subject matter and the Halloween atmosphere...

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

TRINITY CHURCH CEMETERY, NYC, USA

Trinity Church Cemetery consists of three separate burial grounds associated with Trinity Church in Manhattan, New York, USA. The first was established in the Churchyard located at 74 Trinity Place at Wall Street and Broadway. In 1842, the church, running out of space in its churchyard, established Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum in Upper Manhattan between Broadway and Riverside Drive, at the Chapel of the Intercession (now The Church of the Intercession, New York), formerly the location of John James Audubon's estate. A third burial place is the Churchyard of St. Paul's Chapel.

The burial grounds have been the final resting place for many historic figures since the Churchyard cemetery opened in 1697. A non-denominational cemetery, it is listed in the United States National Register of Historic Places and is the only remaining active cemetery in Manhattan. There are two bronze plaques at the Church of the Intercession cemetery commemorating the Battle of Fort Washington, which included some of the fiercest fighting of the Revolutionary War. Trinity Church Cemetery, along with Broadway, marks the center of the Heritage Rose District of NYC.

The imposing statue of John Watts stands an impressive 9-feet and 3-inches tall, making it visible from beyond the railing in Trinity Churchyard. George E. Bissell's statue, which rests upon a 7-foot high marble pedestal, was commissioned by Major General John Watts de Peyster to decorate his ancestor's tomb.

John Watts (August 27, 1749–September 3, 1836) was a lawyer and politician from New York City. He was the last recorder of New York under the English Crown. Watts later served as a member of the New York State Assembly from 1791 to 1793, serving as speaker during these three terms. He was a member of the commission to build Newgate Prison, New York City, 1796-1799. Watts was elected to the Third United States Congress, representing New York State. He later served as a judge of Westchester County and founded and endowed the Leake and Watts Orphan House. 


This post is part of Julie's Taphophile Tragics meme.

ANCIENT GRAVES, KOTZIA SQ, ATHENS

Kotzia Square is a square in central Athens, Greece. The square retains several charactertics of 19th century local neoclassical architecture, such as the City Hall of the Municipality of Athens and the National Bank of Greece Cultural Centre. In the middle of Kotzia square classical antiquities have been recently uncovered that include a large part of an ancient road, tombs and a small building. The square is situated just outside of the ancient Acharnean Gate of Classical Athens.

The archaeological site at Kotzia Square yielded many important archaeological finds. It is located directly outside the ancient city’s fortification, part of which were also revealed and is currently preserved in front of the National Bank of Athens building and at the Aiolou pedestrian precinct. Excavations revealed three ancient streets, a dense cemetery dating from the Protogeometric period (ninth century BC) until the Late Roman period (third century AD), a large complex of pottery workshops of the Late Roman period (late third - fourth century AD), and several houses.

Part of the famous Acharnean Street, which began at the city gate (currently in front of the National Bank of Greece building) and led towards the northern demes of Attica, occupies the centre of the archaeological site. Stratigraphical evidence indicates that the street was laid out in 480 BC and was widely used throughout the fifth century BC.

The cemetery stretched on both sides of Acharnean Street. The grave gifts found in association with burials and cremations cover a wide time span. They include all manner of terracotta vases, some of them by famous ancient pottery workshops, human and animal figurines, glass and terracotta unguentaria, bronze mirrors, gold jewellery, coins, and other objects. A large number of sculptures from funerary monuments, such as columns, pillars, and marble vases, were discovered throughout the excavated area. Many of these were inscribed with the names and origin of those buried in the cemetery. 

During the second half of the third century AD, after the devastating invasion of Athens by the Heruli, the cemetery fell into disuse, and a large complex of pottery workshops covered much of its area. The workshops operated during the fourth century AD, a period of prosperity for Athens. Archaeological finds from inside and around the pottery kilns show that they produced vases, domestic utensils, lamps, roof tiles, and antefixes.

The excavations at Kotzia Square were conducted in 1985-1988 during the construction of an underground car park and covered an area of 7,000 square metres. Additional investigation took place near the car park’s entrance and exit points in 1998-1999. Parts of the excavated area were conserved and fenced in 2003-2004, and are now accessible to visitors.

This post is part of Julie's Taphophile Tragics meme,
and also part of the Our World Tuesday meme.

Kotzia Square flanked by the neoclassical National Bank buildings

One of the National Bank of Greece buildings on the square

City Hall and Mayor of Athens office 

Part of the excavated ancient road

The archaeological site of Kotzia Square

Part of the ancient cemetery with remnants of the ancient city walls

The graves are all lined with large blocks of stone

An ancient memorial to "Ermagoras, son of Timon" 

In the  National Archaeological Museum of Athens one may see human remains with funerary offering vases. these have been recovered form ancient graves

MELBOURNE GENERAL CEMETERY CHAPEL

This Chapel is found in the grounds of the Melbourne General Cemetery, about which I have blogged about before, here. It is a Victorian bluestone building, along the lines of which many other coeval churches in Melbourne were built.

This post is part of the Psalm Sunday meme,
and also part of the Spiritual Sunday meme.

And here is a lovely Felix Mendelssohn setting of Psalm 2 op.78 "Warum toben die Heiden" with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir directed by Daniel Reuss.

SICILIAN CEMETERY

When visiting Sicily we stopped at a couple  of cemeteries and had a wander through them. Italian cemeteries tend to be very crowded and the graves are very ornate and adorned with statues, carvings, flowers and text. One can tell space is at a premium, but at the same time the culture is very much influenced by the past, when in Etruscan and Graeco-Roman times the tomb was seen as the place where the dead spent their time after life so it had to be as home-like as possible. Hence the mausoleums and elaborate tombs of antiquity.

Many pagan traditions have survived in both Greece and Italy and those customs, beliefs and traditions that relate to the dead have been particularly resistant to change. Instead the introduced Christianity has adapted these old pagan traditions into new guises that were compatible with the new religion's belief systems.

The photos in this post are from a quite large cemetery in the outskirts fo Syracuse, Sicily. This post is part of Julie's Taphophile Tragics meme.

A high wall completely surrounds the cemetery

The text in the centre, on the pages of the open book reads: "Why do you look at me? As I am you will become; As you are I once was." This is a common ancient epitaph that has here been translated to Italian 

Interesting to see this modern-looking statue of a mourner in amongst the more traditional Christs and Madonnas

Even the dead live in high rise apartments!

FIRST CEMETERY OF ATHENS (2)

Continuing on my post about the First Cemetery of Athens for Julie's Taphophile Tragics meme.


One enters this cemetery through an imposing and rather modern looking gateway, flanked by two angels in wrought iron work. The dome of the Cemetery Church of St Theodore can be seen to the left. This is the largest of three churches in the cemetery. There is also the smaller chapel of St Lazarus and the Catholic chapel.

While we were visiting, we chanced upon a funeral. Space is at a premium in this particular cemetery, and generally only very famous people or family members with existing family mausolea can be interred here.

Traditionally, funeral wreaths are only given by close relatives and friends, and these wreaths are placed outside the house  with the coffin lid, while the overnight wake with the open coffin is held in the house of the deceased. The wreaths are then taken to the cemetery with the coffin.

The open coffin is placed at the front of the church at the cemetery.  Those friends who have not visited the home file past and offer their condolences to the family before kissing  the forehead of the deceased and laying flowers across the coffin. After the church requiem liturgy finishes, the coffin is sealed and everyone moves out to the cemetery for the burial. The funeral arrangements are looked after by staff of the funeral parlour, who in Greek are called 'κοράκια' (korákia = 'crows') as they normally dress in black suits.

Koliva (also transliterated Kollyva) is a dish of boiled wheat, chopped parsley, ground roasted chick peas, pomegranate grains and sugar, which is used liturgically in the Eastern Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Churches at funerals and memorial services.  This ritual food is blessed after the memorial Divine Liturgy performed at various intervals after a death; after the funeral; during mnemosyna - memorial services; on the first Friday of the Great Lent. It can be decorated very elaborately with icing sugar and dragées. Here it is seen in a specialist shop in Anapáfseos St ('Repose St') leading to the Cemetery.

Other specialist shops line this approach to the cemetery and offer funerary goods for sale, including lanterns, oil lamps for graves, statuary, gravestones and memorial plaques for graves illustrated here. The photographic portraits of the deceased are special seritypes on porcelain.

And now some more photos of the graves and mausolea at the cemetery. Here is the mausoleum of the Mavromihalis Family.

An ossuary is a chest, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the skeletal remains are removed and placed in an ossuary. The greatly reduced space taken up by an ossuary means that it is possible to store the remains of many more people in a single tomb than if the original coffins were left as is. One can see the ossuary of the this cemetery in the middle of the photo.

The tombs of A.Ph. Papadakis and P.P Demestichas.

A sphinx flanking the mausoleum of Adamantios Koraïs (1748 – 1833), a famous man of letters.

FIRST CEMETERY OF ATHENS (1)

The First Cemetery of Athens (Greek: Πρώτο Νεκροταφείο Αθηνών) is the official cemetery of the City of Athens and the first to be built. It opened in 1837 and soon became a luxurious cemetery for famous Greek people and foreigners. The cemetery is located behind the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Panathinaiko Stadium in central Athens. It can be found at the top end of Anapafseos Street (Eternal Rest Street).


It comprises a large green, park-like space and is planted with pines and cypresses, traditional cemetery trees. In the cemetery there are three churches. The main is the Church of Saint Theodore and there is also a smaller one of Saint Lazarus. The third church is a Catholic church. There are separate burial areas for Protestants and for Jews. The cemetery includes the tomb of Heinrich Schliemann (archaeologist), designed by Ernst Ziller, the tomb of Ioannis Pesmazoglou (banker, economist and politician), that of Georgios Averoff, and the tomb of Sophia Afendaki, named I Kimomeni (the Sleeping Girl), with a famous sculpture by the sculptor Yannoulis Chalepas. The cemetery is under the jurisdiction of the Municipality of Athens and is declared a historical monument.


Other famous people's graves in the cemetery include: Theodoros Kolokotronis, general, politician; Richard Church, general; Kostis Palamas, poet; Angelos Sikelianos, poet; Odysseas Elytis, poet; Giorgos Seferis, poet; Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece; Dimitri Mitropoulos, conductor, pianist, composer; Ernst Ziller, architect; Melina Mercouri, actress and politician. Walking through the cemetery is like turning the pages of a history book of the recent (19-20th century) history of Greece.


This post is part of the Taphophile Tragics meme.

General view of one of the avenues of the cemetery

The tomb of Ioannis Pesmazoglou, banker and statesman. Schliemann's tomb is the one on the upper left looking like a miniature temple.

The tomb of Sophia Afendaki - "The Sleeping Girl" by Yannoulis Halepas. The sculptor is said to have attempted suicide when he was told that the bier the girl is lying on was too short to allow full extension of her legs! In 1878, Chalepas suffered a nervous breakdown and destroyed several of his sculptures. When he was committed to a mental asylum, his mother, who blamed sculpture for her son's illness destroyed everything he had created.  

The tomb of Evangelos Averoff-Tositsas, politician