Cimitero delle Porte Sante (''The Sacred Doors Cemetery'') is a

monumental cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

located within the fortified bastion of the Basilica of San Miniato al Monte.

History

The idea of a burial site near

San Miniato San Miniato is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Pisa, in the region of Tuscany, Italy. San Miniato sits at an historically strategic location atop three small hills where it dominates the lower Arno valley, between the valleys of Egol ...

was conceived around 1837, although the

camposanto Camposanto ( Modenese: ; Mirandolese: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Modena in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about northwest of Bologna and about northeast of Modena on the Panaro river. Although the name in ...

was inaugurated eleven years later, in 1848. The project, originally entrusted to architect

Niccolò Matas Niccolò "Nicola" Matas (6 December 1798 – 11 March 1872) was an Italian architect and professor. He is best known for being the architect of the 19th century Gothic Revival façade of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy. Matas was ...

(the designer of the facade of the Basilica of Santa Croce), was enlarged and in 1864 Mariano Falcini used the area of the sixteenth-century fortress lying around the church. The project of the new cemetery grew parallel with the development of the new road network, elaborated by Poggi, which, with the opening of the Colli Boulevard and the monumental staircase, created new ways to access the

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's Forum (Roman), forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building ...

Notable tombs

In addition to many

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

architectural features, the cemetery holds the

burial sites Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

of many illustrious figures, including: *

Giuseppe Abbati Giuseppe Abbati (January 13, 1836February 21, 1868) was an Italian painter who belonged to the group known as the Macchiaioli. Biography Abbati was born in Naples. He received early training in painting from his father Vincenzo, who specialized ...

* Libero Andreotti *

Pietro Annigoni Pietro Annigoni, OMRI (7 June 1910 – 28 October 1988) was an Italian artist, portrait painter, fresco painter and medallist, best known for his painted portraits of Queen Elizabeth II. His work was in the Renaissance tradition, contrasting ...

* Pellegrino Artusi *

Lazar Berman Lazar Naumovich Berman (russian: Ла́зарь Нау́мович Бе́рман, ''Lazarʹ Naumovič Berman''; February 26, 1930February 6, 2005) was a Soviet Russian classical pianist, Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1988). He was hailed for a h ...

* Luigi Bertelli (Vamba) * Alessandro Bonsanti *

Mario Cecchi Gori Mario Cecchi Gori (; 21 March 1920, in Florence – 5 November 1993, in Rome) was an Italian film producer and owner of companies. He produced over 200 films, notably with Damiano Damiani, Dino Risi (''The Easy Life'', ''I Mostri'') and Ettore Scol ...

(with his wife Valeria) * Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi * Alimondo Ciampi * Bruno Cicognani *

Carlo Collodi Carlo Lorenzini (24 November 1826 – 26 October 1890), better known by the pen name Carlo Collodi (), was an Italian author, humourist, and journalist, widely known for his fairy tale novel ''The Adventures of Pinocchio''. Early life Co ...

* Enrico Coveri * Felice Le Monnier * Claudio Leonardi * Guido Manacorda * Ferruccio Masini * Lorenzo Orsetti *

Giovanni Papini Giovanni Papini (9 January 18818 July 1956) was an Italian journalist, essayist, novelist, short story writer, poet, literary critic, and philosopher. A controversial literary figure of the early and mid-twentieth century, he was the earliest and ...

Marietta Piccolomini Marietta Piccolomini (; 5 March 1834 – 11 December 1899)The birthdate given in this article is stated by the Register of baptisms — year 1834 — number 215 — of the former Parish of Saints Quiricus and Julitta in Sienna, while the death dat ...

* Ermenegildo Pistelli *

Paolo Poli Paolo Poli (May 23, 1929 – March 25, 2016) was an Italian theatre actor. He has also acted in films and on television. Career After a university degree in French literature, Poli began his acting career in the early 1950s and was one of the f ...

Vasco Pratolini Vasco Pratolini (19 October 1913 – 12 January 1991) was an Italian writer of the 20th century. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times. Biography Born in Florence, Pratolini worked at various jobs before entering the l ...

* Rodolfo Marma *

Renzo Ricci Renzo Ricci (27 September 1899 – 20 October 1978) was an Italian stage and film actor. He was also a noted theatre director. Ricci played the title role in Roberto Rossellini's 1961 film ''Garibaldi''.Bondanella, Peter. ''The Films of Roberto ...

* Brass Roses * Bruno Rossi *

Gaetano Salvemini Gaetano Salvemini (; 8 September 1873 – 6 September 1957) was an Italian Socialist and antifascist politician, historian and writer. Born in a family of modest means, he became an acclaimed historian both in Italy and abroad, particularly in ...

Tommaso Salvini Tommaso Salvini (1 January 182931 December 1915) was an Italian actor. Life Salvini was born in Milan to parents who were both actors, his mother being the popular actress Guglielmina Zocchi. Finding the boy had a talent for acting, his father ...

* Giorgio Saviane * Odoardo Spadaro * Giovanni Spadolini * Angelo Torchi * Luigi Ugolini *

Pasquale Villari Pasquale Villari (3 October 1827 – 11 December 1917) was an Italian historian and politician. Early life and publications Villari was born in Naples and took part in the risings of 1848 there against the Bourbons and subsequently fled to Flore ...

Notes

* Foresto Niccolai (ed.), ''The urns of the strong, monuments and burial inscriptions'' , Coppini Tipografi, Florence, September 1997. * Valeria Paniccia, ''Walking in the meadows of eternity'' , Mursia Editore, 2013 * Aldi there of the Holy Doors - Studies of conservation and restoration of the burial monuments, Florence, Palazzo Spinelli, 2016

External links

References

{{Authority control Cemeteries in Florence Catholic cemeteries in Europe Gothic Revival architecture in Italy 1837 establishments in Italy Monuments and memorials in Florence