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The Non-Catholic Cemetery for Foreigners in Testaccio, Rome (to give it its full name) is also widely known as the Protestant Cemetery although it contains the graves of many Orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims and other non-Christians. It is one of the oldest burial grounds in continuous use in Europe, having started to be used around 1730 [History]. It was also referred to in the past as ‘The English Cemetery’ because of the many English people buried there. It is hard to think of another urban site quite so glorious. Its towering cypress trees and abundant flowers and greenery shelter a heterogeneity of elaborate and eclectic graves and monuments, nestled on a slope in the shadows of the Pyramid of Cestius (dated between 18 and 12 B.C.) and adjacent to a section of Rome's ancient Aurelian wall [Other Monuments Nearby]. "It might make one in love with death, to think that one should be buried in so sweet a place," wrote Shelley, not long before he drowned and was buried here. Throughout
the 19th century and
into the 20th, the little
Cemetery was something
of a pilgrimage site,
revered by authors. Daisy
Miller, the heroine of
Henry James's eponymous
novella, was buried there.
After an audience with
Pope Pius IX in 1877,
Oscar Wilde visited the
Cemetery, proclaiming
it "the holiest place
in Rome." The
Cemetery can be visited
daily and
the Visitors' Centre
is a source of information
and publications [Visitor
Information]. |
