The city of dead millionaires: what the most famous cemetery in the world looks like. Inhabitants of the land of the dead - local "inhabitants" of cemeteries

A cemetery is not just a territory where human remains are “disposed of”, it is a place where a very strong and destructive energy of death is concentrated. In this regard, the inhabitants of the land of the dead live on the churchyard and there is their own energy pyramid, which is formed according to 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 to be on the lower astral layers, nourishing your etheric body which people can see as a ghost. Such souls are very closely connected with their buried body and can at any moment come to the call if they make it at the grave. Sometimes they do not leave it at all, but settle down nearby, unable to say goodbye to their earthly existence. But not only they inhabit this territory, there are other formations that have learned to process and eat such “food”.

As in any other system, the cemetery has a "king" and "subjects" who perform their direct duties and occupy a certain place in the hierarchy. Let's start, perhaps, with the highest element, which refers not so much to the land of the dead itself, as to the afterlife.

Black Widow

The Black Widow, she is also called Death or the Mistress of the Cemetery, since she is in charge of all the souls that have departed to the realm of the dead. There is a very interesting legend that says that once her husband was executed by the Lord himself. And she, having remained a widow, continues to mourn her beloved to this day. In order 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 duties: to be between the bright and dark forces, occupying an intermediate position.

It is customary to turn to the Black Widow in order to enlist support in carrying out any rite on the territory of the churchyard. For the most part, she does not take part in the rituals, but, with her approval, the practitioner can receive help from other spirits, through which he plans to realize this or that effect. Having appeased the Mistress of the cemetery, you can be sure that the request will not be ignored.

Cemetery owner

Another very important figure that is present on every graveyard is the owner of the cemetery. Some practitioners claim that the very first deceased buried in this territory serves as the Master, others say that the Master's grave is the most powerful element of the cemetery, since all energy flows flow to it. In such a burial, both a suicide and a witch can rest. , depending on which one of them wins. Therefore, it is possible that the Owner may change.

He is approached with a request for support in the conduct of the ceremony. If they go to the Mistress more on love issues, then to him - for the well-being or punishment of enemies.

Seven Squad Imps

Seven squad demons - special kind 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 set up powerful defenses or inflict colossal damage.

Dead

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

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

Guardians

Guardians are astral beings 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, by the behavior of which the sorcerer can conclude whether he was given access to work in the cemetery. If the animals behave restlessly and even aggressively, then the practice is driven away, and it is better to leave, since there will no longer be any sense from his work. If they favor, they help in every possible way, for example, they can show the way to the grave.

Flyers

If in a dream you ended up in a cemetery and are sitting on a bench - this is a favorable sign, you will be entrusted with a responsible task. Walking around the cemetery - therefore, in reality you will fail this business. If events in a dream occur in winter, the situation will be aggravated by the departure of a husband, friend or lover who could help good advice or a specific case. The summer cemetery portends complete success and celebration for this occasion.

An old cemetery means that your grief will be premature and everything will turn out for the better. A modern cemetery means the ingratitude of children who will not help you in old age, throwing the care of you onto the shoulders of complete strangers.

For a young lady in love, a dream in which she sees herself in a cemetery with her friend means sincere love on his part, but your pretended indifference will lead to the fact that such a possible and close happiness will melt like smoke. Seeing yourself in a cemetery alone portends the opportunity to get married and bitter regret about what you have done.

If a young woman is preparing to get married, and in a dream she sees that her wedding procession is walking among the graves, such a dream predicts the death of her future husband as a result of an accident. If at the same time she lays flowers on the graves, this means many years of prosperous health for both spouses.

If someone recently acquired the status of a widow, and in a dream visited her husband’s grave, it means that in reality this person will have to marry again.

Talking in a dream with a husband lying in a grave - health, success in business and long life waiting ahead of her and her new chosen one. If the husband expresses dissatisfaction or condemnation in his conversation, new worries and regrets await her.

For older people, to see a dream associated with a cemetery portends a quiet and calm departure to another world, but not earlier than after the period necessary to complete all the important things planned.

Seeing fresh graves in the cemetery means that in reality someone's dishonorable act will cause you severe torment. Seeing open graves in the cemetery portends trouble and illness. Looking into an empty grave - to the loss of loved ones.

If, walking in a dream through a cemetery, you find a grave with your last name, first name and patronymic, this is a sign of danger threatening you, bad news, loss of friends and loss of a loved one.

The dream in which you see cheerful children in the cemetery portends favorable changes and a long happy life. Seeing huge tombstones in the cemetery, going into the sky - to bad changes and unhappy love.

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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 "mournful place" every year. What makes them wander in thought 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 - Lychakiv.

In 1783, Emperor Joseph II, guided by concern for the health of the townspeople, ordered the removal of all church cemeteries in Lviv. For burials, 4 sites were allocated outside the city. One of them, where it was necessary to bury the inhabitants of Seredmist and 4 sites, was in the suburb of Lychakov. And, I must say, far from “average” Lviv residents lived there. So from its very opening - in 1786 - the Lychakiv cemetery became the main necropolis of the city of Lion. Only respected and wealthy townspeople found their last shelter 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 quite easy to get lost here. Few people, even among the native Lviv residents, are well versed in all 86 fields of the churchyard.

But how did it happen that City of dead» became the most popular holiday destination for the living? And it all started in 1856. Then the botanist K. Bauer laid alleys and walking paths on the territory of the cemetery. The gloomy realm of the dead suddenly, as if by a wave magic wand, has turned into a unique park for romantics, melancholics, philosophers and simply admirers of beauty.

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

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

The Lychakiv cemetery has its own legends and signs. So, Lviv students firmly believe that Bishop Mykola Charnetsky will help them pass the exam successfully. So, as they say, the earth on the grave during the sessions has to be topped up several times.

The most beautiful and famous legend Lychakiv cemetery is associated with tragic history love.
The famous Polish artist Artur Grotger met 16-year-old Wanda Monnet at a ball. Love broke out suddenly. Walks, words of love... Once, wandering along 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 finish a series of paintings there. It was no longer destined to meet again in love. Grotger died of tuberculosis in the French Pyrenees, and young Wanda sold all her jewelry in order to transport the coffin with the body of her beloved to Lvov. According to her sketch, the sculptor P. Filippi made a tombstone, and the girl made a medallion with a portrait of Arthur herself. Here and today, after a century and a half, fresh flowers always lie. And the guides do not get tired of telling stories about the ghosts of Arthur and Wanda, who are allegedly often seen walking along the alleys of the churchyard on clear moonlit nights...

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

Many people love cemeteries, and there are many reasons for this. Someone loves to tickle their nerves with the clear presence of death. Someone prefers silence and an abundance of greenery, usually inherent in cemeteries. In addition, most cemeteries are the memory of mankind, original historical museums. There are people's stories.

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

The first story ... about flying coffins

Isn't it - looking at this picture of one of the most ancient cemeteries in human civilization, do you somehow involuntarily remember a dead lady flying in a coffin over the head of Thomas the student?

And that's a pretty good association.

The Hanging Coffin Cemetery, located on Mount Wuyi in the Chinese city of Guyue, is about 4,000 years old. The ancient Chinese believed that in order for the soul of the deceased to get to heaven as soon as possible, it is necessary to hang the deceased himself 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, Indonesia.

Piles were driven into the stone rock and coffins were placed on them, although from the outside it seems that they do not hold on to 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: one cannot move in such a coffin suspended at a height. You move - you fly away. And not to the sky, of course, but down. To already, as they say, do not collect the bones.

Maybe the ancient Chinese cared not so much about the safety of the dead, but about the living? It seems they had their own lore about vampires... In that case, the method of hanging coffins is quite reasonable.

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

One of the largest cemeteries in Europe is Central Vienna, 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 Tram was replaced by the city's electric tram, which in 1907 was assigned number 71. It has survived to this day.

At the beginning of the century, when the Spanish flu raged 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 for the transportation of corpses. After the war, this method of transporting the dead was abandoned, but number 71 still walks around the cemetery, and all the Viennese remember its special funeral mission. Therefore, when they want to speak jokingly or allegorically, they say about the deceased that he “went number 71”.

In addition to the tram, a bus route and a line pass 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 the cemetery of St. Mark in a completely different district of Vienna, and where exactly he is buried is still unknown. Nevertheless, the Austrians allocated a place to the genius of music in their honorary Pantheon-necropolis.

There are 350 real celebrity graves in the cemetery, and more than 600 honorary commemorative graves (“initiates”).

Story three... about sleepers and their dolls

The Toraya people living in Indonesia are probably the most leisurely people on earth. In any case, if one of the tribesmen suddenly stopped moving, eating, breathing, they still didn’t recognize him dead from the bay. (“Such questions are not solved out of the blue!”)

A freshly deceased person was considered only "sleeping". Unlike the cautious Chinese, the caring Indonesians placed the bodies of their relatives, showing no signs of life, in comfortable tombs carved into the rock. For several years, bodies were mummified there, and people were considered "sick". So that the “sick” would not be bored and scared, special “tau-tau” dolls were put up in front of the tombs for protection and company.

Years later, the ritual burial ceremony was completed by throwing the deceased up several times and then laying him down with his feet to the south.

Only after all these procedures, he was finally considered dead.

The fourth story ... about almost alive

Graveyard dolls may seem like a weird idea, but objectively, it's no more weird than the idea of ​​artistic tomb sculpture. If tau-tau dolls are designed to scare away spirits, then monuments in European cemeteries are sometimes very effective in scaring away the living. For example, the inhabitants of Genoa do not like their most visited by tourists cemetery - Staglieno - just because of the abundance of beautiful statues, mausoleums and sarcophagi. Most of the tombstones here are made by skillful Italian artists of the XIX century - Santo Varni, Giulio Monteverde and others. And it's terrible, because the statues look exactly like real people!

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

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

In Russia, the most famous tombs of the “eternally living” are the 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 exchanged gravestones after death), Vladimir Mayakovsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, Lyubov Orlova, Alexander Vertinsky, Boris Yeltsin, Nikita Khrushchev and many other famous people are buried at Novodevichy.

Mikhail Lomonosov, Natalya Lanskaya-Pushkina, representatives of noble families - Trubetskoy, Volkonsky, Naryshkin and others rest at the Lazarevsky cemetery.

The fifth story... about the kiss of Death

Most famous monument The Poblenou cemetery in Barcelona depicts the direct contact between Death and man. The sculpture is called "The Kiss of Death"; 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: the 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, he is Death in the form of a man in a black cloak. In order 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.

None resemblance between the eccentric Death in Bergman's film and the winged skeleton in sculpture. But folk legend, probably quite rightly sees the commonality in these two images: both there and there Death appears to a person as something living and tangible.

Story six... about art on the 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 hard, with varying success. Therefore, in 1278, King Otakar II of Bohemia sent abbot Jindrich Sedlecki to Jerusalem with a special mission: since it is 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 can freely use spiritual treasures. The abbot did just that. A handful of earth, which he seized from Golgotha, was scattered over the monastery cemetery. From that moment on, burials here were automatically equated with rest in the Holy Land, and the local dead - with the face of the righteous.

The cemetery on Kutná Hora became not only 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, do not throw it away the bones of all these righteous?! They decided to decorate the Church of All Saints, built on consecrated land, with their relics.

All work was carried out by a talented woodcarver Frantisek Rint and his assistants. Appreciate their artistic taste: flowerpots, wall and altar decorations, the coat of arms of the benefactors - the Schwarzenbergs, a charming chandelier made from the details of a human skeleton.

It is impossible to calculate the exact number of used remains, but they say that there were about 50,000 of them. The interior turned out to be devilish. Didn't he inspire Hans Rudolf Giger, the creator of "alien", samples of nests of alien creatures? Or, maybe, models of handbags and lampshades made of human skin for other creatures, which, alas, are not alien at all? But this, of course, is an extreme option.

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

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 the 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 given no more than two meters of land and 25 years for rest. After this period, if the relatives do not pay further rent, the inhabitant of the grave is evicted, freeing up a place for next dead person. But throwing out the bones is not comme il faut. Therefore, 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 evident. Someone is buried with pomp and honor in the holy land, while someone is 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. The local dead women were once also called "Winchester geese".

These are prostitutes working in brothels London and, according to society, deserved a separate cemetery. For sentimental reasons, the local iron fence is often decorated with colored ribbons, key rings, 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 sick people, rotting alive, were hidden from the world. Later, in the 16-18 centuries, on the site of a leper colony, a drinking establishment for the poor and a large wasteland arose, where public executions and burned witches. In the end, this obviously unfortunate land fit only for burial. The Melaten cemetery in Cologne was opened in 1810, and after being filled with beautiful tombstones and monuments by German sculptors for more than a hundred years, this place nevertheless acquired a certain veil of decency and nobility.

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

At the end of the 18th century, the Parisian cemeteries, founded in the Middle Ages, were so overcrowded that in many places the ground grew only due to human remains. In 1780, the wall of the Cemetery of the Innocents - the largest cemetery French capital- delimiting the world of the living and the dead, collapsed, and the basements of the nearest residential buildings were filled with bones and corpses. Infection of urban soil now and then led to outbreaks of epidemics among the population. The problem had to be solved urgently and radically: the French parliament forbade the burial of the dead within the city and ordered to remove all the remains from the cemeteries to the 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 for storing wine, expanded and deepened them ... In general, they also made a considerable contribution. So much so that in 1793 the caretaker of the church of Val-de-Grace, Philibert Asper, set on fire with the idea of ​​finding the old wine cellars, went ... and disappeared in the underground labyrinth. He himself was found only 11 years later - in the form of a skeleton. The body was identified only by the 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 the General Inspectorate of Quarries. The king was executed during the revolution, and this state accounting agency 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 taken out, disinfected, processed and laid at a depth of 17 meters underground in the abandoned quarries of Tomb-Isoire. Further, from 1786 to 1860, for more than 70 years, the catacombs were filled with the remains of 6 million people from other Parisian cemeteries.

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

If the Parisian catacombs amaze, first of all, with their scope and abundance of bones, then the Capuchin catacombs in the Italian Palermo - another necropolis chosen by tourists to visit - has very special, unique trump cards. Here, several mummified bodies are openly exhibited 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 save her body at all costs.

It is not known what secrets the doctor had, but, most likely, in addition to the medical procedures he undertook, the special microclimate of the dungeon also helped the cause.

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

Story nine... about mummies and a damned knight

Someone sees the benefit in preserving the body after death, while someone sees quite 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 (life years - 1651-1702) is displayed. Local tradition tells of him by no means flattering things.

Say, he was a great lover to use the feudal "right of the first night." He already had more than a dozen legitimate children and almost three dozen bastards. Nevertheless, in July 1690, he demanded the "right of the first night", appearing at the wedding of a poor shepherd in the town of Buckwitz. The unfortunate girl put up a fierce resistance. In revenge, the knight killed her fiancé. For this crime, he landed 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 buried in the earth, if I deceive!” the knight added to reinforce his oath.

In those days, the testimony of an aristocrat was not customary to question. 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 von Kalbuttsev 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 cursed 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 scaring anyone.

In general, this museum has a rather rich collection of mummies - there are 111 of them here!

All these people were buried at the end of the 19th - 20th centuries in stone tombs at the local cemetery "Saint Paula Pantheon".

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

For the rest of these 111 dead, they did not pay, so their bodies were exhumed. When it turned out that they miraculously mummified themselves, they decided to place them in a special storage. In 1969, a museum was opened at the cemetery, where the bodies were paraded in glass cases.

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

Some scholars believe that mummification human body after death - under certain circumstances, the process is completely natural. The post-mortem transformation of subcutaneous fat leads to the fact that the body is “blurred”, creating a kind of protective film that protects against the influence of bacteria and further destruction. But for such a process, the constancy of temperature and air composition and the purity of the environment are necessary.

It is these conditions that develop if the cemetery and stone crypts are located on sandy soil.

In 1925, near St. Petersburg, in the village of Martyshkino, in the old abandoned Lutheran cemetery, homeless riffraff and thieves began to settle in luxurious family crypts. In search of profit, this shameless public opened the coffins and looted, robbing the dead, tearing jewelry, expensive lace, silver braid from the corpses. For the sake of entertainment, the thieves themselves threw the corpses out of the tombs, placed 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 only two of them have survived to this day. These mummies from the era of Peter I are on display at the Museum of Sanitation and Hygiene in St. Petersburg on Bolshaya Italianskaya Street.

Story ten... about the drowning of the dead

Whatever people do with people, including the dead... Sometimes even the dead are drowned.

In the Philippines, there is a curious tourist site - a flooded cemetery. The old 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 love to dive here, among the coffins, for their portion of adrenaline.

But if the Philippine Cemetery flooded as a result of a natural disaster, then 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 occupies 16 acres of the 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 the level, and the average cost of a funeral is about 7 thousand dollars.

If one’s own existence during life seemed completely meaningless to the deceased, then, at least posthumously, it acquires an unconditional meaning and meaning: 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, died. Very helpful to everyone.

Eleventh story ... about a cheerful cemetery

You won't be surprised if you find out that the most fun cemetery in the world is in Romania, right?

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

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

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

In the 1930s, artist and sculptor Stan Jon Petrash carved and painted the first jolly grave monument, rumored to have been made for his late wife, whom he loved dearly. On an oak headstone in bright pictures and patterns, he told about her life, about what kind of person she was, what she liked, what she didn’t like, and for what other people respected her.

The villagers liked the idea of ​​Petrash, and now there are more than 800 amazingly beautiful tombstones in the Veseloe Cemetery, made by the artist himself and his students.

Looking at the cemetery and talking about the life of the dead neighbors is one of the entertainments of the locals.

Well, tourists are coming in now. Where do without them?

Story 12... about the highway to hell and the son of Satan

Stull Cemetery in Kansas, US is also called the Highway to Hell. Why is not exactly known. 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. There are persistent rumors in America 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, as they say, died in 1850. For convenience, he placed here separate gates to Hell.

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

The place is considered so unclean that even Pope John Paul II allegedly ordered to fly around the cemetery when he flew to Colorado in 1995 on his private jet for public performances. This is such a horror-horror!

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

Story 13... about where the mafia sleeps

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

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

This type was the organizer of the Murder Corporation, a combat brigade of bandits engaged in kidnappings, racketeering, contract killings for the mafia.

Luciano profited wherever possible. He owned the entire underground crime market: drugs, gambling, prostitution. Having deserved to be executed in the electric chair more than once or twice, he was, nevertheless, forgiven and amnestied by the American government in 1946 "for services to society", which were expressed in the fact that Luciano, before the opening of a second front in Europe, helped the intelligence of the US Navy establish contact with the Italian mafia.

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

History fourteenth... Jewish

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

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

And this cemetery is also famous for the fact that it was on it, among the ancient stone tombstones, according to the instructions of conspiracy theorists, that secret meetings of the "wise men of Zion" were held.

Fifteenth story ... about the Japanese trying on coffins

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

The Ryogoku Ryoen Necropolis - the cemetery of Two Thousand Buddhas - harmoniously combines both modernity and tradition. Located in a high-rise building, outwardly it resembles, rather, a bank vault. The desired grave with the urn of the deceased can be found using an electronic card with an identification chip. The walls of the cemetery are decorated with 2000 transparent Buddha figurines, they are illuminated by colored LEDs, which is why the Buddhas change color every now and then - a mesmerizing sight suitable for meditation.

Older Japanese are offered new modern services - planning and organizing their own funerals, special seminars and webinars on ritual fashion. Those who wish can not only choose a nice coffin for themselves, but also try it on. In order to personally verify that last way they will depart in full dress and in comfort.

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

Real estate - solid monuments of architecture, quiet streets - in granite tiles, neighbors - millionaires, movie and sports stars, artists, sculptors and presidents. But this place is not 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, professional cameraman and director, traveled, probably, all countries Latin America and now works as a guide and organizer of trips. On his website, he posted a detailed description of the Recoleta cemetery and interesting stories associated with this place.

Recoleta does not look like a cemetery, in the usual sense for us. Rather, it is a small town, with narrow and wide alleys, majestic crypt houses (there are more than 6400 of them), incredibly beautiful chapels and sculptures. This is one of the most aristocratic and ancient cemeteries, which can be put on a par with the famous "Monumental de Staglieno" in Genoa and "Père Lachaise" in Paris.

“The funeral traditions of South America are wild and creepy,” Maxim begins the “excursion”. - 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 you have to pay for the rent of a beautiful crypt. Therefore, after 3-4 years, the deceased is usually reburied. Why 3-4? So that the corpse has enough time to decompose so that it can be placed more compactly, already now in a truly eternal refuge. It all looks like this. 3 years after the first burial in the cemetery, near the crypt, the relatives of the deceased gather. Cemetery workers pull the coffin out of the crypt. Then they open it and, to the sobs of relatives “mother-mother ...” or “grandmother-grandmother”, they shift the half-decomposed corpse from beautiful coffin in a black plastic bag. The sack is solemnly taken to another part of the cemetery, and stuffed into one of the small holes in the large wall. Then the hole is walled up, and the plate is glued. When I found out about all this, the hair on my head began to stir.

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

Here is Recoleta from a helicopter. It can be seen that it is located 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 right at the entrance there are carts ready to transport coffins. Above, above the main gate, a bell. It is called when a person is buried.

Between 1910 and 1930, Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world. And during these times, there was an unspoken competition between the Argentine nobility, who would build a more luxurious crypt for their family. The Argentinean capitalists did not spare money, the best European architects were hired, the most expensive materials were brought from Europe. It was in those years that the cemetery acquired such a look.

Who tried as best he could. 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 begs itself, but 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 putrid smell in the cemetery. The secret is in the device of the coffin - it is made of metal and hermetically sealed. And it is simply sheathed 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. A small ladder usually leads to it. Let's look into one of the cellars under this crypt. Only one basement floor is visible here, there is another one below it, and sometimes there are three floors down. Thus, in these crypts lie entire generations. And there are still a lot of places.

Each crypt belongs to a specific family. And usually it is not customary to write the names of those who are buried there on the crypt. Write only the name of the head of the family, for example: Julian Garcia and family. They usually do not write any dates either, it is not customary to hang out 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 whole mission of planting flowers, caring for, cleaning and maintaining the crypts is given to the cemetery attendants. The owners just pay them money for it.

There are crypts without any information at all. Ida and that's it! What is Ida, what is Ida? For a couple of years I walked under Ida and did not know about its existence, until one tourist noticed her, accidentally raising his head.

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 in this way.

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

There are special guided tours of this cemetery. Spanish. And the guides tell stories to match this cemetery: by no means boring and scientific, but exciting and exciting - like Latin American TV shows. For example: “... this rich lord quarreled with his wife and they did not talk for 30 years. Therefore, a tombstone was erected for them with humor. On the most luxurious sculptural composition, they sit with their backs to each other ... "

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

For example, one 19-year-old girl was buried in a family crypt. But after a while, it seemed to visitors that indistinct sounds were coming from the bowels of the crypt. It was not clear whether the sounds were coming from the crypt or from somewhere else. The relatives were notified just in case, 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 lid of the coffin was scratched, and there was a tree 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 coming out of the crypt. And at the cemetery since then they began to use the fashionable method in those days in Europe for such cases. A rope was tied to the hand of the corpse, which led outside and was fixed to the bell. To be able to notify everyone that he is alive.

But this crypt is also remarkable. Buried here is a young Argentine woman, the daughter of very wealthy parents of Italian origin. She died during her honeymoon. The hotel in Austria where she stayed with her husband was covered by an avalanche. She was 26 years old, and it happened in 1970. And the parents of Liliana (that was the name of the girl) ordered this luxurious crypt in gothic style. In those days, it was still possible to buy land and build new crypts. At the foot in Italian is a father's verse dedicated to the death of his daughter. It keeps saying “why?” all the time. 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 need something to entertain their audience, began to say that if you rub your dog's nose, you will definitely be lucky. People believe and rub...

The husband's body was never found in that Austrian hotel. And since then, the same man has appeared in 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 please everyone not only in terms of height, but also in terms of sense of humor, combining two incompatible religious symbols on this crypt: the Jewish menorah and the Christian cross.

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

And buried here Federico Leloir, Argentinean 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. In general, he lived extremely modestly. This crypt is family, Federico had rich relatives who were engaged 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, he without too much sentimentality announced that it was necessary to liberate the southern lands and annex them to Argentina. "Liberate" meant to destroy all 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 Roca has become national hero and is considered to be so until our times. There are streets named after him, his portraits are printed on the most popular, 100-peso bill. Times were like that, and what is now called genocide, racism and Nazism, 100 years ago was the norm.

Some crypts are in a very abandoned state. For example, if all relatives have died. But it is still impossible to take away the crypt: private property. Destroying or touching is also impossible. But when it becomes clear that the owners of the crypt will no longer appear (for example, if it has been ownerless 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, a toilet was modestly crammed.

The cemetery is famous for its cats.

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

All crypts in the cemetery are private. And the owners can dispose of as they please. Friends can also be buried there. They can rent or even sell. Prices for crypts in this cemetery start at 50 thousand dollars for the most modest and can reach 300-500 thousand for a more respectable one. That is, the prices are comparable to the 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 not only of Argentinean, but also of world importance. Here, not only any buildings are prohibited, it is also forbidden to modify or rebuild ready-made crypts. You can only restore the old ones, and even then after a lot of permits and solely for the purpose of giving the 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 hanger, 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) do not bother at all that their windows overlook the cemetery. On the contrary, people consider themselves the chosen ones of fate - well, how to live in Recoleta!

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