On the Monumental Cemetery La Certosa di Bologna: Heritage and Testimonies

This article is about the monumental cemetery of Bologna – known and referred to hereafter as La Certosa, or the Certosa Cemetery. The first part focuses attention on its heritage; the reader will be taken on a journey through some of the most striking monuments. The heritage of La Certosa and the way it has developed is illustrated and interpreted in close connection with local and international artistic trends and movements, as well as historical, economic, political and cultural events that have marked the history of Bologna and Europe over the course of the Eighteenth Century to the present. The second part focuses on a selection of written testimonies on La Certosa that over the years have featured in local news, reported anecdotes as well as letters, travel diaries and commentaries from international writers, critics and intellectuals. Overall, as we shall see, these provide a picture that is unusual for a cemetery: not just a place where the dead rest, are commemorated and remembered, but also one that features the living and has impacted in the lives of those who visited it.