Things to do in Milan

Monumental Cemetery of Milan

The enormous Monumental Cemetery of Milan stands out for the great number of tombs of high artistic level that it possesses. More than a cemetery, it is an open-air museum that shows impressive works from the 19th century to the present day.

The Monumental Cemetery was built in 1866 to unify the small and unhealthy cemeteries that were distributed throughout the city.

With a land of more than 250,000 MQ of open-air space, the cemetery contains a wide range of sculptures from Italian Artists, Greek temples, obelisks, and even a small-scale version of Trajan's Column.

In the main entrance there is a kind of "hall of fame" in which are located the tombs of some of the most important citizens of the country.

Among the most striking tombs are a kind of white tower in which is carved the life of Jesus, belonging to the Bernocchi family, a curious pyramid belonging to the Bruni family, and several sculptures representing the Last Supper, the Family Campari.

As it is such a special cemetery, it is no surprise that it has a section where the tombs of Jews and other citizens who did not belong to Catholicism are found.

To the left of the main entrance you can see an exhibition of photographs that expose the historical development of the cemetery. At the end of the exhibition are two electric funeral cars built in 1920.