Station Cemetery of Dead Ideas! Inhabitants of the land of the dead – local “residents” of cemeteries

If you are not a ghost, not a vampire, not a necromancer or not a witch, but still love to walk through cemeteries, you are, apparently, a taphophile. Don't be embarrassed! You're not the only one...

Many people love cemeteries, and there are many reasons for this. Some people love to tickle their nerves with the distinct presence of death. Some people prefer the silence and abundance of greenery usually found in cemeteries. In addition, most cemeteries are the memory of humanity, unique history museums. People's stories are kept there.

And, of course, many cemeteries have their own interesting history. We have collected the most interesting ones for you.

The first story... about flying coffins

Isn’t it true - looking at this photograph of one of the oldest cemeteries in human civilization, you somehow involuntarily remember the dead lady flying in a coffin over the head of student Thomas?

And this is a pretty correct association.

The Hanging Coffin Cemetery, located on Mount Wuyi in the Chinese city of Guyue, is about 4 thousand years old. The ancient Chinese believed that in order for the soul of the deceased to get to heaven as quickly as possible, the deceased himself must be hung as high as possible. Therefore, in ancient times, all of Asia hung coffins on rocks. Similar cemeteries are found in the mountains of China, Bali, and Indonesia.

They drove piles into the stone rock and placed coffins on them, although from the outside it seems that they are not supported by anything.

Ethnographers suggest that such structures were, among other things, necessary to protect the bodies of the dead from wild animals, from enemies...

But there is another opinion: in such a coffin suspended at a height it is impossible to move. If you move, you will fly away. And not to the sky, of course, but down. So that, as they say, the bones cannot be collected.

Maybe the ancient Chinese cared less about the safety of the dead than about the living? It seems they had their own legends about vampires... In that case, the method of hanging coffins is very reasonable.

The second story... about a cemetery with a tram

One of the largest cemeteries in Europe is the Vienna Central Cemetery, located in the Simmering district. It was founded in 1874, and now there are more than three million graves there. In 1901, the Simmering Horse Road was replaced by a city electric tram, which in 1907 was given number 71. It has survived to this day.

At the beginning of the century, when the Spanish flu was raging in Europe, the dead were taken to the cemetery at night by tram (there were not enough horses). In 1942, 3 trams were purposefully purchased to transport corpses. After the war, this method of transporting the dead was abandoned, but number 71 still walks through the cemetery, and all Viennese remember its special funeral mission. Therefore, when they want to speak humorously or allegorically, they say about the deceased that he “went number 71.”

In addition to the tram, there is a bus route and a line that runs through the huge cemetery railway. However, the cemetery itself is quiet and peaceful. And it’s beautiful, like in a park. The cemetery is one of the main attractions of the Austrian capital. Tourists sometimes call it Musical, because here you can find the tombstones of most famous composers— Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss (both father and son) and, of course, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Although in fact, when Mozart died, his body was thrown into a mass grave for the poor in St. Mark's Cemetery in a completely different area of ​​Vienna, and where exactly he is buried is still unknown. Nevertheless, the Austrians allocated a place for the genius of music in their honorable Pantheon-necropolis.

There are 350 actual celebrity graves in the cemetery, and more than 600 honorary memorial graves (“dedicated”).

The third story... about sleepers and their dolls

The Thoraya people of Indonesia are probably the slowest people on earth. In any case, if one of his fellow tribesmen suddenly stopped moving, eating, breathing, he was still not immediately recognized as dead. (“Such questions cannot be solved off the cuff!”)

A freshly dead person was considered only “sleeping.” Unlike the wary Chinese, caring Indonesians placed the bodies of their relatives, who showed no signs of life, in convenient tombs carved into the rock. For several years, bodies there were mummified and people were considered “sick.” To prevent the “sick” from being bored and scared, special “tau-tau” dolls were placed in front of the tombs for protection and company.

Years later, the ritual burial rite was completed by throwing the deceased upward several times and then laying him down with his feet facing south.

Only after all these procedures was he finally considered dead.

The fourth story... about almost alive

Dolls in a cemetery may seem like a strange idea, but objectively, it is no more strange than the idea of ​​an artistic gravestone sculpture. If tau-tau dolls are designed to scare away spirits, then monuments in European cemeteries are sometimes very effective at scaring away the living. For example, the residents of Genoa do not like their most visited cemetery by tourists - Staglieno - precisely because of the abundance of beautiful statues, mausoleums and sarcophagi. Most of the tombstones here are crafted Italian artists XIX century - Santo Varni, Giulio Monteverde and others. And this is terrible, because the statues look exactly like living people!

You want to hug a beautiful widow - and she - brrrr! - all cold...

No less frightening and attractive for tourists is the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. This is generally the most big museum tombstone sculpture - as much as 48 hectares! They were buried here for 200 years famous people- scientists, writers, artists, actors, musicians. And most of them are also alive for us, although not literally: Oscar Wilde, Frederic Chopin, Jim Morrison...

In Russia, the most famous tombs of the “eternally living” are Novodevichy Cemetery near the southern wall of the monastery of the same name in Moscow and the Lazarevskoye cemetery - an 18th-century necropolis museum in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg.

Mikhail Bulgakov and Gogol (strangely exchanging tombstones after death), Vladimir Mayakovsky, Dmitry Shostakovich, Lyubov Orlova, Alexander Vertinsky, Boris Yeltsin, Nikita Khrushchev and many other famous people are buried at Novodevichy.

Mikhail Lomonosov, Natalya Lanskaya-Pushkina, representatives noble families— Trubetskoy, Volkonsky, Naryshkin, etc.

Story five... about the kiss of Death

Most famous monument Poblenou Cemetery in Barcelona depicts direct contact between Death and man. The sculpture is called "Kiss of Death"; the authorship is attributed either to Jaume Barba or to Joan Fonbernat.

According to legend, an unknown artist inspired the Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman with his work, and in 1957 he created one of best films in the history of mankind - the picture-parable “The Seventh Seal”, which tells about the meeting of the Knight and Death.

The plot of the film is quite simple: knight Antonius Block (played by Max von Sydow) and his squire Jons return to their homeland from a crusade after several years of absence. On the deserted seashore, Death appears to him in the form of a man in a black cloak. To deceive Death, the Knight offers to play chess... At the end of the film, not only the Knight dies, but also many people whom he met during the film.

There is no external resemblance between the eccentric Death in Bergman's film and the winged skeleton in the sculpture. But the folk legend, probably quite rightly, sees the commonality in these two images: in both cases, Death appears to man as something living and tangible.

Story six... about art on bones

She is also associated with crusades, knights and death. In the Middle Ages, Europeans, under the influence of the Catholic Church and their most Christian kings, were simply obsessed with the image of the Holy Land, which they sought to “liberate” from the oppression of infidels and pagans. The war was difficult, with varying success. Therefore, in 1278, King Otakar II of Bohemia sent abbot Henry of Sedlec to Jerusalem with a special mission: since it was not possible to take possession of the Holy Land there, let the abbot bring at least part of it to his homeland so that here, on the spot, he could freely enjoy spiritual treasures. The abbot did so. A handful of earth, which he captured from Golgotha, was scattered throughout the monastery cemetery. From that moment on, burials here were automatically equated to repose in the Holy Land, and the local dead were equated to the ranks of the righteous.

The cemetery at Kutná Hora became not just famous, but privileged. And over time - very close. When the overpopulation of the Czech version of the “Holy Land” became truly threatening, the noble family of the Schwarzenberg knights, owners of local lands, solved the problem in a cynical and at the same time aesthetic way: the most ancient burials were exhumed, the remains were cleaned with chlorinated slaked lime and... Well, don’t throw it away what about the bones of all these righteous people?! They decided to decorate the Church of All Saints, built on consecrated ground, with their relics.

All work was carried out by the talented woodcarver Frantisek Rint and his assistants. Appreciate their artistic taste: flowerpots, decorations for walls and altars, the coat of arms of their benefactors - Messrs. Schwarzenberg, a charming chandelier made from parts of a human skeleton.

It is impossible to calculate the exact number of remains used, but they estimate that there were about 50,000 of them. The interior turned out to be devilish. Was it he who inspired Hans Rudolf Giger, the creator of “Aliens,” with examples of nests of alien creatures? Or, maybe, models of handbags and lampshades made of human skin for other creatures, alas, not alien at all? But this, of course, is a last resort.

It must be said that the cramped conditions of the common European home inspired not only Czechs to create strange arts. In Austria, in the Alpine village of Hallstadt, a small Gothic church houses more than 600 painted human skulls.

In addition to intricate ornaments, the drawings on the skulls also include inscriptions - information about the deceased “owner”. A kind of “memento mori” - individual monuments on relics. A tiny alpine churchyard is simply not able to accommodate all the local dead. Therefore, according to the law adopted in the village, each deceased is allocated no more than two meters of land and 25 years for repose. After this period, if the relatives do not pay further rent, the occupant of the grave is evicted, freeing up the place for the next deceased. But completely throwing out the seeds is not comme il faut. That’s why skulls are used for art—they decorate the Bone House.

The seventh story... about the unholy land

Indeed, everyone dies (for now, anyway). But still, the well-known saying that death equalizes everyone is only partly true. People are quarrelsome by nature, and even in cemeteries this is sometimes obvious. Some are buried with pomp and honor in the holy land, while others are given a special place underground out of a feeling of... disgust.

For example, in London there is a cemetery for single women. And that doesn't sound feminist-proud. Local dead women were once also called “Winchester geese.”

These are prostitutes who worked in brothels London and, in the opinion of society, deserved a separate cemetery. For sentimental reasons, the local cast-iron fence is often decorated with colored ribbons, key chains, poems and photographs, feathers and silk stockings. But these women are still buried separately.

Even after death they are isolated from society.

Like lepers.

Just like, for example, in the Cologne leper colony, where since 1180 these patients, rotting alive, were hidden from the world. Later, in the 16th-18th centuries, a drinking establishment for the poor and a large wasteland where public executions were carried out and witches were burned appeared on the site of the leper colony. In the end, this clearly unlucky land was only suitable for burial. The Melaten cemetery in Cologne was opened in 1810, and after more than a hundred years of being filled with beautiful tombstones and monuments by German sculptors, the place has acquired a certain air of decency and nobility.

The eighth story... about the catacombs and the inconsolable father

At the end of the 18th century, Parisian cemeteries, founded in the Middle Ages, became so full that in many places the soil grew only due to human remains. In 1780, the wall of the Cemetery of the Innocents, the largest cemetery in the French capital, separating the world of the living and the dead, collapsed, and the basements of nearby residential buildings were filled with bones and corpses. Contamination of urban soil continually led to outbreaks of epidemics among the population. The problem had to be solved urgently and radically: the French parliament banned burying the dead within the city and ordered the removal of all remains from cemeteries to underground catacombs.

Where did they come from? At one time, King Louis XI ordered the extraction of limestone on the lands of the castle of Vauvert. Underground mines and quarry tunnels stretch for many kilometers from the city center.

A little later, the monks of the Luxembourg monastery began to use the caves under the holy monastery to store wine, expanded them and deepened them... In general, they also made a considerable contribution. So considerable that in 1793, the watchman of the Val-de-Grâce church, Philibert Asper, who was fired up with the idea of ​​finding the ancient wine cellars, went... and disappeared into the underground labyrinth. He himself was found only 11 years later - in the form of a skeleton. The body was identified only by keys and clothing.

The exact length of the Parisian catacombs is still unknown - only approximate figures are given, from 180 to 300 kilometers. The last French king, Louis XVI, was forced to issue a decree establishing a General Inspectorate of Quarries. The king was executed during the revolution, but this state accounting body exists to this day. The catacombs have not yet been fully explored, but the city is constantly working to strengthen and reconstruct them. In particular, filling empty quarries with human remains was also part of this plan.

The central cemetery was the first to be cleared of bones. The bones were removed, disinfected, processed and placed 17 meters underground in the abandoned quarries of Tomb-Isoire. Then, from 1786 to 1860, for more than 70 years, the catacombs were filled with the remains of 6 million people from the remaining Parisian cemeteries.

Now this giant bone repository is a popular tourist attraction. But visitors are only allowed to see a small section three kilometers long. Going further is strictly prohibited under threat of a fine of 60 euros. It would be interesting to know what secrets and monsters live in this kingdom of the dead, but the spirit of the monastery watchman, who perished here in search of booze, warns us all against excessive curiosity.

If the Parisian catacombs amaze, first of all, with their scale and abundance of bones, then the Capuchin catacombs in Italian Palermo - another necropolis chosen by tourists to visit - has very special, unique trump cards. Several mummified bodies are openly displayed here for inspection.

And most importantly, the body of two-year-old Rosalia Lombardo. This little girl died of pneumonia almost a hundred years ago, in 1920. Her inconsolable father, not wanting to part with his daughter, asked Dr. Alfredo Salafia to preserve her body at all costs.

What secrets the doctor had is unknown, but most likely, in addition to the medical procedures he undertook, the special microclimate of the dungeon also helped the matter.

Rosalia appears to be sleeping. Her calm and peaceful face looks so alive that it causes trembling in anyone who sees the girl.

The ninth story... about mummies and the damned knight

Some people see the benefit of preserving the body after death, while others see the opposite.

For example, in Germany, in a church that once belonged to the noble von Kalbutz family, the very well-preserved body of the knight Christian Friedrich von Kalbutz (lived 1651-1702) is displayed. Local legend tells far from flattering things about him.

They say he was a big fan of taking advantage of the feudal “right of the first night.” He already had more than a dozen legitimate children and almost three dozen bastards. However, in July 1690, he demanded the “right of the first night” by appearing at the wedding of a poor shepherd in the town of Bakwitz. The unfortunate girl put up fierce resistance. In revenge, the knight killed her fiancé. For this crime he was put on trial, and in order to justify himself, he swore in front of all the honest people that the possessed guy himself attacked the noble gentleman. “And may my body remain incorruptible and not consigned to the earth if I am deceiving!” - the knight added to reinforce his oath.

In those days, it was not customary to question the testimony of an aristocrat. The knight was acquitted, released, and when he died at the age of 52, he was buried in the family tomb. In 1794, after the death of the last representatives of this noble dynasty, the local church community decided to restore the temple. The tomb of the von Kalbutzes was opened in order to transfer the remains to the nearest cemetery... So what?

It turned out that all the dead had decayed, except for one - that same Christian Friedrich. He turned out to be an oathbreaker and his damned body remains unburied to this day.

Mummies often terrify impressionable people. But the “screaming” mummy from the Guanajuato Museum in Mexico is probably capable of frightening anyone.

This museum generally has a fairly rich collection of mummies - there are 111 of them!

All these people were buried in late XIX- 20th century in stone tombs at the local cemetery “Pantheon of St. Paula”.

From 1865 to 1958, Mexico had a law requiring relatives to pay taxes for their buried dead.

These 111 dead were not paid for their peace, so their bodies were exhumed. When it turned out that they miraculously mummified themselves, they decided to place them in a special storage facility. In 1969, a museum was opened at the cemetery, where the bodies were displayed in glass cases.

The eerie expressions on the faces of the local mummies suggest that these people were probably buried alive. Nobody knows whether this is true or not.

Some scientists believe that mummification of the human body after death is a completely natural process under certain circumstances. The post-mortem transformation of subcutaneous fat leads to the fact that the body is “washed up”, creating a kind of protective film that protects against the influence of bacteria and further destruction. But such a process requires constant temperature and air composition and a clean environment.

These are the conditions that arise if the cemetery and stone crypts are located on sandy soil.

In 1925, near St. Petersburg, in the village of Martyshkino, in an old abandoned Lutheran cemetery, homeless punks and thieves began to settle in luxurious family crypts. In search of profit, this shameless public opened coffins and looted, robbing the dead, tearing jewelry, expensive lace, and silver braids from corpses. The thieves threw the corpses themselves out of the tombs for fun, placing them along the main alley, scaring the locals to death. It was then that it turned out that most of the dead in the cemetery in Martyshkino were mummified. But in our time, only two of them have survived. These mummies from the era of Peter I are on display in the Museum of Sanitation and Hygiene of St. Petersburg on Bolshaya Italianskaya Street.

The tenth story... about the drowning of the dead

What people do to people, including the dead... Sometimes they even drown the dead.

There is an interesting tourist site in the Philippines - a flooded cemetery. The ancient churchyard went under water after a volcanic eruption in 1871. 110 years later, this place was marked with a large stone cross - in memory of the disaster and as a sign for divers who like to dive here, among the coffins, for their portion of adrenaline.

But while the Philippine Cemetery was flooded as a result of a natural disaster, the Neptune Memorial Reef off the coast of Miami is a deliberate and man-made project.

It was created in 2007 as an underwater mausoleum to store cremated remains. It covers 16 acres ocean floor. Relatives can visit the graves by scuba diving to a depth of 12 meters. Well, or just go to the site and see if everything is in order using the underwater cameras that this original cemetery is equipped with. In terms of beauty and silence, everything here is on par, and the average price of a funeral is about 7 thousand dollars.

If the deceased’s own existence during life seemed completely meaningless, then, at least posthumously, it acquires unconditional meaning and significance: the ashes of the dead are mixed with concrete and built into the base of a man-made reef. The place is marked with a bronze tablet - such and such lived and died. It was very useful to everyone.

Story eleven... about a cheerful cemetery

You wouldn't be surprised to learn that the funniest cemetery in the world is in Romania, right?

Right. Where else could he be? It’s called Veseloe and, by the way, is included in the UNESCO World Heritage Fund.

Here, in the village of Sapanta, at the Maramures cemetery, the plaques on the tombstones are much more interesting.

They say that the ancient Dacians who inhabited these places had a completely different attitude towards death than we do. For them, death was, rather, a long-awaited and solemn holiday: the eternal soul of man was freed from earthly burdens and rejoiced in anticipation of a cheerful existence in heaven.

In the 1930s, the artist and sculptor Stan Jon Petrash carved and painted the first cheerful grave monument - rumor has it that he made it for his late wife, whom he loved very much. On the oak tombstone, in bright pictures and patterns, he told about her life, about the kind of person she was, what she liked, what she didn’t, and why other people respected her.

Fellow villagers liked Petrash's idea, and now there are more than 800 amazingly beautiful tombstones at the Vesyoly Cemetery, made by the artist himself and his students.

Taking a look at the cemetery and gossiping about the lives of deceased neighbors is one of the entertainments of local residents.

Well, now tourists are also stopping by. Where would we be without them?

Story twelve... about the highway to hell and the son of Satan

Stull Cemetery in Kansas, USA is also called the Highway to Hell. Why is not known exactly. However, this cemetery is one of the most visited in the world.

However, people do not come here for the sake of contemplating the monuments. Here visitors are looking for something absolutely infernal. In America there are persistent rumors that allegedly the son of Satan and his earthly mother are buried in this cemetery.

And the Prince of Darkness himself personally, twice a year, regularly visits the graves of his relatives, who died, as they say, in 1850. For convenience, he placed separate gates to Hell here.

Naturally, for this reason, a whole bunch of ghosts, werewolves live here, and sorcerers and other necromancers commit their atrocities.

The place is considered so unclean that even Pope John Paul II allegedly ordered the cemetery to be avoided when he flew to Colorado on his private plane in 1995. public speaking. This is such a horror!

One thing is not clear: why does Satan visit the graves of relatives who, in theory, themselves should be in their own house next to him, that is, in Hell? "Isn't it just common family tradition and they all get together there during school holidays?” - suggests Tracy Morris, famous American author humorous stories about the supernatural.

Story thirteen... about where the mafia sleeps

And what made almost the entire underworld of New York gather and sleep eternally in the Catholic cemetery of St. John's in Queens? No secrets! It’s just that this cemetery is located closest to the areas where Italian emigrants lived compactly.

As a result, over the years, almost all the participants in the mafia wars of the forties were buried here: heads of clans, informers and hired killers, friends and enemies, former prisoners and death row prisoners. Someone died from a bullet, someone from an illness, in the family circle - but most of them had common criminal affairs, and their biographies are so intricate that you could at least make films about them. Yes, and they filmed it!

For example, the life story of the famous mafia boss, gangster No. 1, Charles “Lucky” Luciano (1897-1962), head of the Genovese-Luciano clan, inspired more than one Hollywood film director.

This guy was the organizer of the “Murder Corporation” - a military brigade of bandits involved in kidnappings, racketeering, and contract killings for the mafia.

Luciano made profit wherever possible. He owned the entire underground crime market: drugs, gambling, prostitution. Having earned execution more than once or twice electric chair, he was, however, pardoned and pardoned by the American government in 1946 “for his services to society,” which were expressed in the fact that Luciano, before the opening of a second front in Europe, helped US Navy intelligence establish contact with the Italian mafia.

This outstanding figure died of a simple heart attack at Naples airport, where he arrived to meet with producer Martin Gosch, who planned to film about him documentary. Subsequently, grateful relatives transported Luciano's body to America and buried him in a mafia cemetery in Queens.

History fourteen... Jewish

In Prague, in the old Jewish quarter of Josefov, there is a Jewish cemetery. The oldest tombstone is marked with the date - 1439. People were buried here from the beginning of the 15th century to the end of the 18th century - for three hundred years.

In total, about one hundred thousand Jews are buried here.

And this cemetery is also famous for the fact that it was there, among ancient stone tombstones, that, according to the instructions of conspiracy theorists, secret meetings of the “Elders of Zion” took place.

Story fifteen... about the Japanese trying on coffins

Probably the most modern cemetery in the world is located in Tokyo. The Japanese often surprise Europeans with their unique approach to everything, including their exceptional calm and pragmatism in matters of life and death. If advanced technologies rule everywhere in their country, why not trust the technocratic future with your funeral?

The necropolis "Ryogoku Ryoen" - the cemetery of Two Thousand Buddhas - harmoniously combines both modernity and tradition. Located in a high-rise building, in appearance it rather resembles a bank vault. The right grave The deceased can be found from the urn using an electronic card with an identification chip. The walls of the cemetery are decorated with 2,000 transparent Buddha figurines, they are illuminated by colored LEDs, causing the Buddhas to change color every now and then - a fascinating sight, suitable for meditation.

Elderly Japanese are offered new modern services - planning and organizing their own funeral, special seminars and webinars on ritual fashion. Those interested can not only choose a nice coffin for themselves, but also try it on. To personally verify that last path they will set off in full dress and in comfort.

As philosophers say, death is an integral part of life. And, I think, our taphophilic walks through the cemeteries of the world demonstrated this wise truth very clearly.

The property is full of architectural monuments, quiet streets lined with granite tiles, neighbors are millionaires, movie and sports stars, artists, sculptors and presidents. But this is not a place for a measured and calm life, but quite the opposite - we are talking about the “city of the dead” in the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires. Recoleta is one of the most beautiful and famous cemeteries in the world and an architectural monument protected by the state and UNESCO. This is both an active necropolis and a popular tourist route at the same time.

Maxim Lemos, A professional cameraman and director, he has probably traveled to all the countries of Latin America and now works as a guide and travel organizer. On his website he posted detailed description Recoleta cemeteries and interesting stories associated with this place.

Recoleta does not look like a cemetery in the usual sense. Rather, it is a small town, with narrow and wide alleys, majestic crypt houses (there are more than 6,400 of them), incredibly beautiful chapels and sculptures. This is one of the most aristocratic and ancient cemeteries, which can be placed on a par with the famous Monumental de Staglieno in Genoa and Père Lachaise in Paris.

— Funeral traditions South America wild and creepy,” Maxim begins the “tour.” — The deceased is buried in a good coffin in a normal, beautiful crypt. But if these are not rich people, then they do not bury him there forever, since they have to pay to rent a beautiful crypt. Therefore, after 3-4 years the deceased is usually reburied. Why 3−4? So that the corpse has time to decompose enough so that it can be placed more compactly, now on a truly eternal refuge. It all looks like this. 3 years after the first funeral, the relatives of the deceased gather in the cemetery, near the crypt. Cemetery employees pull a coffin out of the crypt. Then they open it and, to the sobs of relatives “mama-mama...” or “grandmother-grandmother,” they shift the half-decomposed corpse piece by piece from beautiful coffin in a black plastic bag. The bag is carried solemnly to another part of the cemetery, and is stuffed into one of the small holes in the large wall. Then the hole is walled up and a sign is glued. When I found out about this, the hair on my head started to move.

The crypts are located quite close to each other, so the cemetery is quite small in area.

Here's Recoleta from a helicopter. It can be seen that it is in the middle of a large residential area. Moreover, the square in front of the cemetery is the center of life in this area; there are many restaurants and bars.

The cemetery is active, so there are carts ready to transport coffins right at the entrance. At the top, above the main gate, is a bell. It is rung when a person is buried.

From 1910 to 1930, Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world. And during these times, there was an unspoken competition between the Argentine nobility to see who could build the most luxurious crypt for their family. Argentine capitalists did not spare money, they hired the best European architects, and the most expensive materials were brought from Europe. It was in those years that the cemetery acquired this appearance.

Whoever tried his best. For example, here is a crypt in the form of a Roman column.

And this one is in the form of a sea grotto.

Of course, the question naturally arises: what about the smell? After all, if you look closely, in each crypt there are coffins, the doors of the crypts are forged bars with or without glass... There must be a smell! In fact, of course, there is no corpse smell in the cemetery. The secret is in the design of the coffin - it is made of metal and hermetically sealed. And it is simply lined with wood on the outside.

Those coffins that are visible in the crypts are just the tip of the iceberg. The main one is in the basement. There is usually a small staircase leading into it. Let's take a look into one of the basements under this crypt. Only one basement floor is visible here, there is another one below it, and sometimes there are three floors down. Thus, entire generations lie in these crypts. And there is still a lot of space there.

Each crypt belongs to a specific family. And usually it is not customary to write on the crypt the names of those who are buried there. Write only the name of the head of the family, for example: Julian Garcia and family. They usually don’t write any dates, and it’s not customary to post photographs of the deceased.

This is how you can come and in one fell swoop visit not only grandparents, but also great- and even great-great-grandfathers... But Argentines VERY rarely visit cemeteries. The entire mission of installing flowers, caring for, cleaning and maintaining the crypts is given to the cemetery servants. The owners simply pay them money for it.

There are crypts without any information at all. Ida, that's all! What kind of Ida, what kind of Ida? I walked under Ida for a couple of years and did not know about its existence until one tourist noticed it by accidentally looking up.

Skull and crossbones are quite common in crypts. This does not mean that a pirate is buried here, and this is not someone's inappropriate joke. This is Catholicism. Religion dictates that they decorate the crypts this way.

By the way, here is another secret of this cemetery: cobwebs and, accordingly, spiders here huge amount(at least look at the photographs). But there are no flies! What do spiders eat?

There are special excursions around this cemetery. Spanish. And the guides tell stories that match this cemetery: not boring and scientific, but exciting and fascinating - like Latin American TV series. For example: “...this rich gentleman quarreled with his wife and they did not speak for 30 years. That's why tombstone They were given it with humor. On the most luxurious sculptural composition they sit with their backs to each other..."

Maxim Lemos also has it true stories about some of the guests of this cemetery.

For example, one 19-year-old girl was buried in the family crypt. But after a while, it seemed to visitors that indistinct sounds were coming from the depths of the crypt. It was not clear whether the sounds were coming from the crypt or somewhere else. Just in case, the fireman notified the relatives, and it was decided to open the coffin with the girl.

They opened her up and found her dead, but in an unnatural position, and the coffin lid was scratched, and there was wood under her nails. It turned out that the girl was buried alive. And then the girl’s parents ordered to erect a monument to the girl in the form of her emerging from the crypt. And since then, in the cemetery they began to use a method that was fashionable in Europe at that time. similar cases. A rope was tied to the corpse's hand, which led out and was attached to a bell. So that he could notify everyone that he is alive.

But this crypt is also remarkable. A young Argentinean woman, the daughter of very wealthy parents of Italian descent, is buried here. She died during her honeymoon. The hotel in Austria where she was staying with her husband was covered in an avalanche. She was 26 years old, and this happened in 1970. And Liliana’s parents (that was the girl’s name) ordered this luxurious crypt in the Gothic style. In those days, it was still possible to buy land and build new crypts. At the foot of Italian a father's verse dedicated to the death of his daughter is engraved. It keeps repeating “why?” A few years later, when the monument was ready, the girl’s beloved dog died. And she was also buried in this crypt, and the sculptor added a dog to the girl.

The guides, who needed to keep their audience occupied with something, began to say that if you rub the dog’s nose, good luck will surely overtake you. People believe and tinder...

The husband's body was never found in that Austrian hotel. And since then, the same man appears at the cemetery, who regularly, for many years, brings flowers to Liliana’s grave...

And this is the highest crypt in the cemetery. And its owners managed to impress everyone not only in height, but also in their sense of humor, combining two incompatible religious symbols on this crypt: the Jewish seven-branched candlestick and the Christian cross.

But this is the second largest and first most expensive crypt. It is made from the most expensive materials. Suffice it to say that the inside of the dome roof is lined with real gold. The crypt is huge, and its underground rooms are even larger.

And Federico Leloir, Argentinean, is buried here Nobel laureate in biochemistry. He died in 1987. But such a luxurious crypt was not built on Nobel Prize(the scientist spent it on research), and it was built much earlier. And in general he lived extremely modestly. This crypt is a family one; Federico had wealthy relatives who were involved in the insurance business.

Several Argentine presidents are buried here. Here is President Quintana, depicted lying down.

And this is another president, Julio Argentino Roca. Just 50 years before Hitler, without unnecessary sentimentality, he announced that the southern lands needed to be liberated and annexed to Argentina. “Liberate” meant destroying all the local Indians. This was done. The Indians were destroyed, some of them were transported to central Argentina as slaves, and their lands, Patagonia, were annexed to Argentina. Since then Roka has become national hero and is considered to be so to this day. There are streets named after him, his portraits are printed on the most popular 100-peso bill. Those were the times, and what is now called genocide, racism and Nazism was the norm of life 100 years ago.

Some crypts are in a very abandoned state. For example, if all relatives died. But you still can’t take the crypt: it’s private property. Destroying or touching is also prohibited. But when it becomes clear that the owners of the crypt will no longer show up (for example, if it has been abandoned for 15 years), the cemetery administration takes a fancy to such crypts as warehouses for building materials and other equipment.

In one of the places of the cemetery, the caretakers set up a small household plot.

Among the crypts there was a toilet modestly hidden.

The cemetery is famous for its cats.

In our culture, it is customary to bring plastic wreaths with the inscriptions “from friends” and “from colleagues” at funerals. Then, after a few days, these wreaths are taken to a landfill. This is impractical! Therefore, in Argentina, wreaths are made of iron and welded to the crypt forever. Anyone can mark a friend's grave. And if the person was important, then there are many iron wreaths and memorial tablets on his crypt.

All crypts in the cemetery are private. And the owners can dispose of it as they please. They can also bury friends there. They can rent it out or even sell it. Prices for crypts in this cemetery start from 50 thousand dollars for the most modest one and can reach 300-500 thousand for a more respectable one. That is, prices are comparable to prices for apartments in Buenos Aires: here a 2-3-room apartment costs from 50-200 thousand dollars and up to 500 thousand in the most prestigious area. For example, here - the crypt is for sale.

Until 2003, it was still possible to purchase land on Recoleta and build a new crypt. Since 2003, the cemetery has become an architectural monument of not only Argentine but also world significance. Not only are any buildings prohibited here, it is also prohibited to modify or rebuild ready-made crypts. You can only restore old ones, and even then after a lot of permissions and solely for the purpose of giving them their original appearance.

Some crypts and tombstones are being restored. For example, this one. True, this is being done with the Argentine working rhythm, there is a canopy, the restorers have not been seen for 2 months.

The Recoleta area itself is very prestigious. And the residents of these houses (across the road from the cemetery) are not at all bothered by the fact that their windows overlook the cemetery. On the contrary, people consider themselves chosen by fate - well, how can they live in Recoleta!

However, Maxim Lemox himself believes that Recoleta is “a monument to wild, unusual for us funeral traditions and a competition of inappropriate show-offs: “who is cooler and richer” and “who has more marble, a higher tombstone, and a more exclusive and larger monument.”

This place is located far on the outskirts of the city, large as the capital, but just as small at the same time, which sometimes even seems strange and becomes creepy.
Imagine an area full of inexplicable phenomena pressing on the psyche...
Road to dead cemetery runs through a narrow alley a meter wide, the walls of which are a red brick fence enclosing two private areas with huge houses. The height of the fence exceeds two and a half meters. This corridor into an unknown world, full of fear and despair, seems so long that once you step on it you no longer hope to find a way out...
And so, having walked along this ladder, which can well be called a corridor of time, about forty to fifty meters, a forged arch with a bizarre pattern reminiscent of a pack plant framing a cross of medieval times appears. Here it is, the door to a completely different world. To a place where there are no dangers and troubles. There is only grief and sadness that torments living souls. Behind the arch lies a cemetery, long abandoned by the inhabitants of this beautiful city. The sun rarely reflects on the dilapidated gravestones. It seems like there hasn't been a soul here for decades.
The Cemetery of the Dead itself is half overgrown with wild roses. The vegetation in this place is unusually lush. It’s as if Mother Earth is thus encouraging the wandering souls of this cemetery. Residents have repeatedly talked about mysterious ghosts “appearing from nowhere and going to nowhere.” These are rumors. And only a few are given the opportunity to see the spirits - the guardians of the dead cemetery. But for those who saw them, their lives, surroundings, work begin to change... Apparently, they understand how important it is to look back sometimes. See your mistakes. Other people's mistakes. And they understand everything. They suddenly learn about those things that prevented them from living... And all this credit for success comes from this very cemetery.
So what exactly is so special about this place?
The Cemetery of the Dead literally affects people, their psyche. This leaves a deep mark on souls, like a knife leaving a mark on the bark of a tree. One that is unlikely to restore itself...
Once having been here, a person becomes completely different. And only the bravest dared to come to the dead cemetery a second time to honor the souls resting in graves with the most diverse tombstones, a bouquet of fresh fragrant flowers... What were the rest afraid of? Change. They were frightened even by the thought that their lives could change again. They were afraid of losing what they had gained. Therefore, grateful to the defenders of the cemetery, people simply continued to live.
The description of the cemetery itself is difficult, like nothing else. A large, simply huge number of graves, overgrown with lush emerald leaves so much that it is impossible to read a single letter on the tombstones. Marble slabs of various shades, crosses of the most unusual shapes and types... All this delighted, dazzled and... healed. The atmosphere of mystery reigning around instilled a strange feeling of hope in my heart. The simplest ways out of situations that were previously considered hopeless come to mind...
And the shadows falling from the trees and mysteriously playing on the graves created a mystical mood. Perhaps these shadows were the very ghosts. Who knows?
Graves... Apparently more than once someone decided to try their luck in search of “treasures hidden in coffins.” The awe-inspiring graves were dug up, reminiscent of horror films about the living dead. Here and there you can even see human bones exposed on the black, damp earth. Creepy? Yes. Undoubtedly. But this mysticism, the feeling of the past in the present, involuntarily makes you think about the future...
If we focus on how old the cemetery is... Well, the dates on the graves are quite early... There are dates from the 12th century, which indicates the opening of the cemetery somewhere in 1100.
The last gravestone looks pretty neat. It seems that she is being looked after. The inscription informs about the short-term life of the child, whose journey ended in 1995. The grave is decorated with fresh flowers. From the tombstone in the shape of an irregular trapezoid, someone periodically wipes away dust and fallen leaves from the trees. A faded, once golden cross of regular shape, consistent with Christian traditions, still continues to sparkle brightly in the dim light of the sun, giving off the warmth and affection of its author. It is immediately clear that the creator of this beauty is a relative of the child, apparently the person most deeply grieving for him...
And now, the end of the cemetery of the Dead... Directly opposite the entrance to this forgotten world, a delightful view appears to the eye. An endless field overgrown with poppy flowers, and barely visible mountain ranges stretching along the horizon and dissolving in a gloomy, cloudy and strangely attractive sky...
This is the real middle world. Between past and future. Between fear and freedom. Between death and new life...

The stories of cities for the dead (cemeteries) are somewhat similar to the stories of ordinary cities. They are also born, live and eventually disappear from the face of the earth. It is very rare to find a churchyard whose history goes back more than two centuries. Here, among the tombstones, thousands of destinies, legends and miracles are concentrated... Thousands of tourists come to this “sorrowful place” every year. What makes them wander thoughtfully between completely alien tombstones, forgetting about the fear of death and the oppressive atmosphere of such places? This power is beauty. After all, we are talking about one of the oldest and most beautiful cemeteries in Europe - Lychakovsky.

In 1783, Emperor Joseph II, guided by concern for the health of the townspeople, ordered the removal of all church cemeteries in Lviv. Four plots outside the city were allocated for burials. One of them, where the residents of Seredmistya and Section 4 were to be buried, was located in the suburb of Lychakiv. And, I must say, the people living there were far from “average” Lviv residents. So from its very opening - in 1786 - the Lychakiv cemetery became the main necropolis of the city of Leo. Only respected and wealthy townspeople found their final refuge here.

The prestige of the cemetery was so great that in the 19th century it had to be expanded three times, and today its area is 42 hectares. So it’s not at all surprising to get lost here. Few even native Lviv residents know their way around all 86 fields of the churchyard.

But how did it happen that “ city ​​of the dead"has become the most popular holiday destination for the living? It all started in 1856. Then the botanist K. Bauer laid alleys and walking paths on the territory of the cemetery. The gloomy kingdom of the dead suddenly, as if by magic, turned into a unique park for romantics, melancholics, philosophers and simply admirers of beauty.

Having passed through the neo-Gothic gates, everyone entering here finds themselves in front of a branching alley. You can follow the traditional route, or you can go wandering on your own...

Famous artists, priests, writers, military men, scientists, politicians, famous and respected citizens are buried here. More than 300,000 graves, over 2,000 tombstones, about 500 sculptures, including unique works by Hartmann Witwer, Julian Markowski, Tadeusz Baroncz, Leonard Marconi, Anton and Johann Schimzer.

The Lychakiv Cemetery has its own legends and its own signs. Thus, Lviv students firmly believe that Bishop Nikolai Charnetsky will help them pass the exam successfully. So, as they say, the soil on the grave has to be replenished several times during the sessions.

The most beautiful and famous legend of the Lychakiv cemetery is associated with tragic story love.
The famous Polish artist Arthur Grotger met 16-year-old Wanda Monnet at a ball. Love broke out suddenly. Walks, words of love... One day, wandering the alleys of the Lychakiv cemetery, the poor artist admitted that he would like to be buried here. Two years later, Arthur goes to France to complete a series of paintings there. It was no longer destined for the lovers to meet again. Grotger died of tuberculosis in the French Pyrenees, and young Wanda sold all her jewelry so that the coffin with the body of her loved one could be transported to Lviv. According to her sketch, the sculptor P. Filippi made a tombstone, and the girl made the medallion with a portrait of Arthur herself. Here even today, after a century and a half, there are always fresh flowers. And the guides never tire of telling stories about the ghosts of Arthur and Wanda, who are supposedly often seen walking along the alleys of the churchyard on clear moonlit nights...

A cemetery is not just a territory where human remains are “disposed of,” it is a place where the very strong and destructive energy of death is concentrated. In this regard, the inhabitants of the land of the dead live in the graveyard and have their own energy pyramid, which is formed on the principle of awareness of a particular entity. The higher the awareness, the more important the entity in terms of its “social status”.

The spirit of the deceased may still for a long time be on the lower astral layers, feeding your etheric body which people can see as a ghost. Such souls are very closely connected with their buried body and can come to the call at any moment if it is done at the grave. Sometimes they do not leave him at all, but just settle nearby, unable to say goodbye to their earthly existence. But they are not the only ones that inhabit this territory; there are other formations that have learned to process and feed on such “food.”

As in any other system, in the cemetery there is a “king” and “subjects” who carry out their direct duties and occupy a certain place in the hierarchy. Let's start, perhaps, with the highest element, which relates not so much to the land of the dead itself, as to the afterlife.

Black Widow

The Black Widow is also called Death or the Mistress of the Cemetery, since she is in charge of all the souls that have gone to the kingdom of the dead. There is very interesting legend, which says that her husband was once executed by the Lord himself. And she, remaining a widow, continues to mourn her beloved to this day. To take revenge on Christ, she took the side of the conspirators during the uprising of Satan, but was not thrown down to earth with them, but received new responsibilities: to be between the light and dark forces, taking an intermediate position.

It is customary to turn to the Black Widow in order to enlist support when conducting any ritual on the territory of the churchyard. For the most part, she does not take part in rituals, but, with her approval, the practitioner can receive help from other spirits, through whom he plans to implement this or that effect. By appeasing the Mistress of the cemetery, you can be sure that the request will not be ignored.

Master of the cemetery

Another very important figure that exists in every graveyard is the owner of the cemetery. Some practitioners claim that the Master is the very first deceased buried in a given territory, others insist that the Master’s grave is the most powerful element of the cemetery, since all energy flows flock to it. Such a burial may contain both a suicide and a witch. , depending on which of them takes the “top”. Therefore, it is possible that the Owner may change.

They turn to him with a request for support in conducting the ceremony. If people go to the Mistress more for love issues, then they go to him for welfare or punishment of enemies.

Seven-order demons

Seven-order demons are a special type of demonic entities. They are directly subordinate to the Black Widow and are her personal army. “Seven Squadrons” are very strong, and with their help they establish powerful defenses or inflict colossal damage.

Dead

Of course, the most numerous inhabitants of the cemetery are the souls of deceased people.

Souls can manifest themselves in the most unexpected ways, ranging from human outlines to a clot of formless ether, which more closely resembles melting air. Sometimes people can feel them in the form of goosebumps or a feeling that someone is standing nearby.

Guardians

Guardians are astral creatures who have found their home on the territory of the churchyard and very zealously guard its border. Actually, this is their main function: maintaining order and peace in the land of the dead.

Guardians like to appear in the form of birds and animals, from whose behavior the sorcerer can deduce whether he has been given access to work in the cemetery. If the animals behave restlessly and even aggressively, it means that the practitioner is being driven away, and it is better to leave, since his work will no longer be of any use. If they are favorable, they will help in every possible way, for example, they can show the way to the grave.

Flyers