Travels with my Art

Paintings and Photographs inspired by Travels Around the World

I’ll meet you at the cemetery gates – Interesting cemeteries around the world

Sombre, scary and creepy are the feelings usually associated with visiting graveyards  but for me walking around a cemetery is a truly uplifting experience. Eerie sometimes, yes, but there is always an overwhelming feeling of peacefulness, contemplation and curiosity.
From as far back I can remember, I have enjoyed wandering through graveyards… now I guess I’m starting to sound weird… but please, bear with me.

As a young girl every Sunday I used to attend then later teach at the Sunday School at my local church, St Mary’s in Baldock, Hertfordshire. As I was a curious child, I loved exploring both inside and outside the church, which dated back to the 14th Century and therefore had plenty to occupy my inquisitive mind.

I was intrigued about the names written on the gravestones from the centuries that had gone before me. One inscription which always used to stop me in my tracks was this: “In memory of Henry George, son of Henry and Harriet Brown who departed this life Mar 20th 1861 Aged 10 years & 10 months – How soon I was cut down when innocent at play, The wind blew a scaffold down and took my life away.”

I remember looking at this before I was ten, then when I was ten and ten months and now, even 30 years on, every time I go back home to visit my mum who still lives in Baldock, I always pass by this and take a few minutes to value my own life.

Later as a young teenager, admittedly with Gothic tendencies, I used to wallow in walking home via the graveyard. Then came my obsession with the alternative group,  The Smiths  –  and when they released their song ‘Cemetery Gates’, where Morrissey and Marr invited their fans to meet them at the cemetery gates: “A dreaded sunny day, so let’s go where we’re happy and I’ll meet you at the cemetery gates“, I knew my love for both the Smiths and for visiting cemeteries was now set in stone.

After my dad unexpectedly died when I was sixteen death became a very big part of my life, whether I wanted it to be there or not. At significant times of the year I would go for poignant walks with my mum and our dog, Baron, to visit dad’s grave, where my mum would place daffodils or his other favourite flowers.

At University me and my best friend and fellow Smiths fan, the biographer Carol Ann Lee, would visit popular Smiths sights in Manchester and on a sunny day, would often find ourselves at Southern Cemetery, which was the inspiration for Morrissey’s lyrics to the song Cemetery Gates.

Southern Cemetery Gates in Manchester

Southern Cemetery Gates in Manchester

When I moved to Poland in the late 1990s one of my regular walks into Katowice town centre was via Cmentarz on ul. Sienkiewicza, where my mood was always lifted by the huge number of flowers and candles which adorned the graves all year round even in the deep snowdrifts of a Polish winter.

But nothing prepared me for the evening of the Polish national holiday Dzień Wszystkich Świętych (All Saints’ Day) when my normally peaceful evening walk in the cemetery was met with scores of laden with lanterns and flowers.

Each grave had been adorned with large bouquets of flowers and 10 or 20 lanterns all ablaze, and with thousands of graves in the cemetery at dusk it was a truly divine experience. The next day All Souls’ Day (Dzień Zaduszny or Dzień Wszystkich Zmarłych) was the an even more amazing.

One of the grandest cemeteries to visit in the world is La Recoleta in Buenos Aires, Argentina, famous for being the resting place of Eva Peron. When I visited Argentina about 15 years ago, on my very first day in Buenos Aires I made a beeline to this legendary necropolis.

From everywhere you stand in the opulent cemetery white stone spiritual beings gaze down at you really feel as though you are among angels. Needless to say I had a wonderful time wondering around with my sketchbook and camera.

La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires

La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Here are some of my favourite photographs from this ethereal experience.

Contrary to the lavishness of Recoleta cemetery is the graveyard of the ruined St Thomas a Becket church in Heptsonstall, a tiny village high up on the moors above Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, England.

The graveyard, full of dark stone graves, is shared by two churches, the ruined church, named after the Archbishop of Canterbury who was murdered on the order of the King in 1170 not long before building started on this church, and an adjacent church, St Thomas the Apostle, which is in current use.

When you are standing high up on the moors above Calderdale Valley in among the ruined shell of the church on a windy day it is easy to imagine how the building was destroyed by a heavy gale in 1847. Heptonstall also boasts the oldest Methodist Church in continuous use.

But this unique setting is not my only reason for visiting this curiously Gothic place, for here you will find the grave of poet and writer, and heroine of mine, Sylvia Plath, whose husband former Poet Laureate Ted Hughes came from nearby village Mytholmroyd. Sylvia Plath committed suicide in 1963, she was just 30 years old. The inscription on her headstone reads “Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted 1932 – 1963”

My husband and I lived in Mytholmroyd for five years, just up the road from where Ted Hughes grew up, and during that time we would often take a walk up to the moors to visit this beautiful place.

These photos are from one of those snowy wintery walks.

Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath

I have done it again.
One year in every ten
I manage it—

A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot

A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.

Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?—

The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.

Soon, soon the flesh
The grave cave ate will be
At home on me

And I a smiling woman.
I am only thirty.
And like the cat I have nine times to die.

This is Number Three.
What a trash
To annihilate each decade.

What a million filaments.
The peanut-crunching crowd
Shoves in to see

Them unwrap me hand and foot—
The big strip tease.
Gentlemen, ladies

These are my hands
My knees.
I may be skin and bone,

Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.
The first time it happened I was ten.
It was an accident.

The second time I meant
To last it out and not come back at all.
I rocked shut

As a seashell.
They had to call and call
And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.

Dying
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.

I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I’ve a call.

It’s easy enough to do it in a cell.
It’s easy enough to do it and stay put.
It’s the theatrical

Comeback in broad day
To the same place, the same face, the same brute
Amused shout:

‘A miracle!’
That knocks me out.
There is a charge

For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge
For the hearing of my heart—
It really goes.

And there is a charge, a very large charge
For a word or a touch
Or a bit of blood

Or a piece of my hair or my clothes.
So, so, Herr Doktor.
So, Herr Enemy.

I am your opus,
I am your valuable,
The pure gold baby

That melts to a shriek.
I turn and burn.
Do not think I underestimate your great concern.

Ash, ash—
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there—

A cake of soap,
A wedding ring,
A gold filling.

Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.

Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair

And I eat men like air.

 

Other interesting cemeteries to around the world

 

Highgate Cemetery (London, England)

This is one of the most magical places to visit in London, where you’ll find some of the finest funerary architecture in the world. Hidden between masses of trees, shrubs and under creeping ivy you will find the graves of Karl Marx, Michael Faraday, George Eliot, Henry Moore, Douglas Adams, Christina Rossetti and one of my favourites, Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal who the famous Pre-Raphaelite muse who posed for a number of famous paintings including the haunting Ophelia by Sir John Everett Millais.

 

Cimetière du Père Lachaise, (Paris, France)

This vast cemetery with its cobblestones and tree-shaded paths and is a romantics paradise, walking around it you can play a spot the bohemian celebrity, for this is the final resting place of Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, Molière, Frederic Chopin, Modigiliani, Marcel Proust, Honore De Balzac, Théodore Géricault, and the medieval star-crossed lovers Abelard and Heloise, whose bones long after their death were buried together in a grand tomb, where where lovers leave letters. The tomb of Oscar Wilde, designed by sculptor Jacob Epstein, now has a increasing problem with people leaving other romantic gestures and a very strange form of graffiti, a lipstick kiss, which are now becoming a serious problem, because the grease sinks into the stone and when the stone is clean it is starting to wear away.

Old Jewish Cemetery (Prague, Czech Republic)

A higgledy-piggledy mass of graves dating back to the 15th century, the old Jewish Cemetery lies in the Jewish Quarter of Prague. However, the numbers of gravestones and the number of people buried here cannot be measured, as the layers upon layers of tombs makes it nearly impossible to know.  Some say there are 12,000 tombstones that are visible however, but there could very well be 100,000 burials in all.

jewish cemetery prague

The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, Czech Republic

 

Arlington National Cemetery (Virginia, USA)

This is the most famous cemetery in the United States, and is the final resting place for more than 300,000 veterans of every American conflict, from the Revolutionary War to Iraq and Afghanistan.  Since its founding in 1866, Arlington National Cemetery has provided a solemn place to reflect upon the sacrifices made by the men and women of the United States Armed Forces in the name of their country.

arlington cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery Virginia USA

 

Merry Cemetery (Săpânța, Romania)

In a small town in the Maramures region of Romania lies a small cemetery quite unlike any other in the world. In the 1930’s woodcarver Stan Ioan Patras carved a picture for each person that died and mounted it to the grave. The carved crosses are brightly painted predominantly in blue, show either how the person died or the person doing their favourite thing in life, along with a short poem written about the person.

 

Xoxocotlan Cemetery (Oaxaca, Mexico)

As part of the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrations families hold night-long vigils at the Xoxocotlan cemetery outside of Oaxaca in celebration of their dead relatives. Bands play music, people eat the favourite food of the deceased, drawings are made using sand and graves are swamped with flowers and photos of the dead.

 

Okunoin cemetery (Mount Koya, Japan)

Okunoin cemetery is in Koya-san, an ancient village located in Japan’s mountainous Wakayama Prefecture. It is Japan’s largest cemetery, with over 200,000 tombs spread across 2 kilometres and it looks like has come straight out of a Studio Ghibli movie.

Okunoin Cemetery, Mount Koya, Japan

Okunoin Cemetery on Mount Koya in  Japan

 

So next time you feel a shiver and say, “someone is walking over my grave’, it not be such a bad thing after all.

 

The Smiths – Cemetery Gates 

A dreaded sunny day
So I meet you at the cemetery gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
A dreaded sunny day
So I meet you at the cemetery gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
While Wilde is on mine
So we go inside and we gravely read the stones
All those people, all those lives
Where are they now?
With loves, and hates
And passions just like mine
They were born
And then they lived
And then they died
It seems so unfair
I want to cry
You say : “‘Ere thrice the sun done salutation to the dawn”
And you claim these words as your own
But I’ve read well, and I’ve heard them said
A hundred times (maybe less, maybe more)
If you must write prose/poems
The words you use should be your own
Don’t plagiarise or take “on loan”
‘Cause there’s always someone, somewhere
With a big nose, who knows
And who trips you up and laughs
When you fall
Who’ll trip you up and laugh
When you fall
You say : “‘Ere long done do does did”
Words which could only be your own
And then produce the text
From whence was ripped
(Some dizzy whore, 1804)
A dreaded sunny day
So let’s go where we’re happy
And I meet you at the cemetery gates
Oh, Keats and Yeats are on your side
A dreaded sunny day
So let’s go where we’re wanted
And I meet you at the cemetery gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
But you lose ‘Cause weird lover Wilde is on mine

Shiver!

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69 Comments

  1. Leya November 7, 2017

    Wonderful – I also love walking cemeteries. Here I found a couple of new ones I will visit when I am in the vicinity…

  2. jdhinesblog November 7, 2017

    Nice, and thanks for introducing me to a new song! 🙂

  3. NC November 7, 2017

    St Mary’s Youth Fellowship rocked! And that one wooden grave to a boy our age has never left me….nor the love of graveyards – resting places for those who have gone home. great post Ali. TC xx

  4. Ann Curran November 8, 2017

    I still yet cannot pass that gravestone without reading its poignancy. So sad. Q in Mexico now. Went to Oaxaca to celebrate Day of the Dead.

    • Ali Dunnell November 8, 2017

      Hi Anne. It’s strange that this plaque has struck a cord with so many people. I communicated with Q. telling him how jealous I was… I went to Oaxaca about 15 years ago, but never visited for the Day of the Dead. Can’t wait to see his photos!

  5. thewonderer86 November 8, 2017

    What a great post. I love walking around cemeteries, and now I realise there are quite a few more to visit!

  6. Sapna November 8, 2017

    I remember when we were kids, we were so scared to visit cemeteries at night. It is a very different and interesting post. A different perspective to know another side of a city.

    • Ali Dunnell November 8, 2017

      I really find them thoughtful places – although I do remember as a teenager when I was with a group of friends there were occasions when we would frighten each other so much with stories of Carrie or Freddy Kruger or Candyman and then I would walk the long way home 🙂

  7. duemidwest November 8, 2017

    I’ve always loved seeing the old headstones. They are so beautifully carved and decorated. Not going to lie though, thinking about walking across all those dead bodies gives me the chills. New Orleans has really interesting cemeteries if you want to add that to your future list 🙂

    • Ali Dunnell November 9, 2017

      Lots of people have mentioned the New Orleans cemetery, so I will have to add that to my list of places to visit. I just love the calmness of being in a cemetery, and walking around really makes me think about the past and the future. Thanks for stopping by my blog 🙂

  8. adventuresofb2 November 8, 2017

    Great post. New Orleans has some great cemeteries as well. I loved all your pictures.

  9. Holly @ Southern Roots Blog November 9, 2017

    I agree about not understanding the aversion to cemeteries. Admittedly, I don’t typically hang out in them after dark, but I love exploring them when I travel to new places. The only one I’ve visited on your list is Arlington, which was a really solemn experience. I’ve also found beautiful cemeteries in New Orleans, Lisbon, Paris, and other places. They really can be beautiful!

    • Ali Dunnell November 9, 2017

      I confess, these trips to graveyards are done by day… not by night. Even though I don’t believe in ghosts, I think I would avoid most cemeteries at night. Thanks for stopping by my blog and commenting 🙂

  10. Ruth November 9, 2017

    There is no doubt this is an interesting topic. I think you can learn a lot about a society or area by visiting one of its cemeteries. When I started reading my post, the Recoleta Cemetery came to my mind. So, it was a pleasant surprise to read about your visit! I think that is the prettiest cemetery I have visit. Here in Los Angeles the Hollywood Forever Cemetery hosts shows and movie nights.

    • Ali Dunnell November 9, 2017

      Thanks for your interesting comment. I have heard about the Hollywood Forever Cemetery and would love to visit it… it sounds a fascinating place. Thanks for stopping by my blog 🙂

  11. Holly November 9, 2017

    I’ve seen and learned about the one in Prague. New Orleans is known for theirs.

    • Ali Dunnell November 9, 2017

      I have visited New Orleans, many years ago, but never visited the cemetery. I guess I will have to go back and visit again 🙂

  12. Alice Ford November 9, 2017

    Growing up in an old colonial town I saw a lot of old graveyards, and they always made me wonder more about the past. I never knew JIm Morrison was buried in Paris and so interesting about Oscar Wilde.

    • Ali Dunnell November 9, 2017

      I guess it is my love for history which makes visiting cemeteries so interesting. Thanks for reading my post and commenting 🙂

  13. mirela November 9, 2017

    I live in Romania and I visited the Merry Cemetery (Săpânța, Romania), Maramures. It`s a very interesting cemetery, unique in the world. Great post!

  14. kjaroundtheworld November 9, 2017

    Interesting blog post. What a cool topic to write about. I’d like to visit the cemetery in France. I hear the cemetery’s in New Orleans are grand too.

    • Ali Dunnell November 10, 2017

      So many people have mentioned the one in New Orleans… and I visited the city about 20 years ago, but didn’t visit the cemetery… I guess I am just going to have to go back. I love Père Lachaise in Paris so much… a Bohemian’s paradise 🙂

  15. Michaela November 10, 2017

    Wow, what an original blog post! I don’t get to visit cemeteris often, so it was an interesting read. I would love to visit the one in Buenos Aires though.

  16. Destination>Differentville November 11, 2017

    Loved this. The Romanian one looks great. I’ve also been to a fair few of these – and I’m from Watford and used to listen the Smiths. Do you think there was something in the Herts water?

    • Ali Dunnell November 11, 2017

      There were only a few of us Smiths fans in north Herts when I was there… Good to know there was another one down in Watford. Where are you now?

  17. Travelquartz November 11, 2017

    recently I visited Florence Church San Miniato El Monte and it had the most amazing views and a peaceful cemetery too facing those views. Check my post on Florence to know more.

  18. Sheree November 11, 2017

    What an amazing post! I remember visiting Cimetière du Père Lachaise with my family when I was 15 – the visual of Oscar Wilde’s grave, and the tributes in his memory (the lipstick prints), are burned into my memory. It was only earlier today I was thinking that I should visit more cemeteries; partially because they’re one of the only refuges in the world where no one says anything nasty about anyone else (I actually find really well-kept graves really uplifting, that someone had so much love in their lives that people return to maintain them and show appreciation), and also that it would be nice to pay respects to those abandoned or forgotten graves. Thank you so much for sharing this <3

  19. chadmroot November 12, 2017

    It’s taboo in many countries, but I also enjoy walking around graveyards. I like seeing how different cultures honor the dead.

    • Ali Dunnell November 13, 2017

      Yes you are right – I am currently living in Kenya, and prior to that was in Tanzania, and I am sure it would be very frowned upon. We must always be culturally sensitive 🙂

  20. thetripwishlist November 12, 2017

    Fascinating post, and I loved your back story! Recoleta was amazing, and this post makes me want to visit the places listed, especially the cemeteries in Japan, Romania, and Mexico!

  21. PossesstheWorld November 13, 2017

    Love all of this post, I thought we were the only ones into visiting cemeteries. We learn so much about culture, history and life in times past from burial rites and cemeteries. Thanks for the post

  22. Priyanka November 13, 2017

    I dont know how you do this but I get super creeped out. I avoid cemeteries altogether! But well compiled article. And interesting trivia! 🙂
    ~ http://www.nerdyadventuress.com

  23. Artsy Style Traveler November 13, 2017

    Quite different kind of post! I have never visited any cementeries so far but there is so much learn and understand. Thanks for the post!

  24. whodoido November 13, 2017

    I must admit that I find cemeteries a little eerie. I don’t often wander through them and pass by them if I’m on a country walk. However, reading your post I didn’t realise how many beautiful cemeteries there are. During All Saints Day, the cemetery looks so peaceful with it being lit up by the lanterns. Thanks for sharing.

  25. kad8585 November 13, 2017

    What a beautiful post. I love the idea of looking at a cemetary in a different went. I also love the profound message and beauty that cemetaries leave us with.

  26. moimehr November 13, 2017

    A beautiful and different post. Here in India, Hindus are cremeted so there is no concept of cemeteries for us. But it’s a hair raising feeling seeing the deads but so alive in their loved ones memories.

  27. Shaily November 13, 2017

    Lovely post! Very unconventional. I do get fascinated but equally scared by the graveyards. You’ve given quite a different perspective of looking at the cemeteries. Very impressive! Thanks for sharing this thoughtful post. 🙂

  28. heraafarooq November 15, 2017

    Very different and interesting post 🙂 I was scared of cemeteries when I was kid, your post changed my view.

  29. Indu November 15, 2017

    Unusual topic with emotional feel of poetry. I cherished all. Thanks for this sharing this wonderful piece of writing.

  30. littleslifeandlaughter June 30, 2018

    I’m such a sucker for beautiful cemeteries. I’m glad I’m not the only one out there! The Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires reminds me so much of the above-ground tombs in New Orleans. My all-time favorites that I just discovered are in Scotland. Behind Rosslyn Chapel and Greyfriars Kirkyard, reported to be one of the most haunted graveyards in the world!

    • alidunnell July 1, 2018 — Post Author

      Oh my goodness, I have visited the one in Greyfriars Kirkland in Edinburgh, but quite a long time ago! The one in New Orleans I’ve heard a lot about and have yet to visit. Thanks for commenting and visiting my site 🙂

  31. suedavies689 June 30, 2018

    Interesting post. Been to the cemeteries you mention in Prague and Paris.Would love to go to the Day of the Dead on Oaxaca.

  32. Anisa July 1, 2018

    I am fascinated by cemeteries, so your post gave me a few more ideas. Like others said the New Orleans ones are impressive. I also went to an American Cemetery in Cambridge England – which was for American soldiers who died/went missing in England during WWII.

  33. Runaway Brit July 1, 2018

    Hi Ali,

    I must admit that I quite like mooching around a graveyard too. Maybe it’s the English teacher in me – I have a tendency towards the melancholy. Out of your list I have been to Recoleta and Pere Lechaise, but I really like the small churchyard cemeteries you find in the UK – so much history in such a small space. I went to the cemetery on Mt Zion earlier this year, which was fascinating.

    Lovely post, as always.

    • alidunnell July 3, 2018 — Post Author

      Nothing wrong with a bit of melancholy – well as long as you’ve got something fun planned to follow up with 😉 I hope you have a great summer and do lots of travelling – can’t wait to read about it all in your blog. You never know now I’ll be back in Europe I may pop over and visit 🙂

  34. Sartenada November 17, 2019

    We have been thrice to:

    Cimetière du Père Lachaise,

    Happy and safe travels!

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