Love this piece! I’m also fascinated with cemeteries and have been to La Recoleta, Pere Lachaise, and others just to wander among the tombs of the famous and not-so-famous. Another favorite is the Jewish cemetery in Prague. I saw it in 1983 and have never forgotten all the small hills where plots where stacked up on top of one another. In Austin, I’m fascinated by the Austin State Hospital Cemetery on 51st Street (have done a little research and writing on it) and the small cemetery on the grounds of the Austin State Supported Living Center. They of course tell the stories of people who had intellectual and/or mental challenges, or whose relatives got tired of dealing with them and had them committed to those institutions.
Thank you, Mary! Yes, I think this is why I'm interested in them, too: every grave tells the story of a life, and yet for most we can only imagine what happened before they ended up in that specific spot.
So enjoyed this! Beautifully and thoughtfully written. Many thanks. My wife and I enjoy visiting cemeteries whenever we travel. In the spring we were moved by visits to both American and British cemeteries for veterans of D-Day and the subsequent battles for Normandy and later strolled the crowded Momartre cemetery in Paris where many notable cultural figures rest. I think how a respectfully cultures handle human remains is related to how much the values individual lives. A couple of thoughts on these competing for space in urbanizing areas. Might there be value in the reminder of our own mortality to soften resistance to change in a neighborhood needed to make room for the next generation? And in densifying places, as you point out, cemeteries can have value green space for strolling or picnics. As far as “carbon sequestration” goes, any green in a dense city will not be able to much relative to local emissions. Denser neighborhoods, on the other hand, are almost always “greener” than leafy or lawn-filled suburbs because they enable far lower per-capita GHG emissions from housing and transport. Counterintuitive, but true.
Love this piece! I’m also fascinated with cemeteries and have been to La Recoleta, Pere Lachaise, and others just to wander among the tombs of the famous and not-so-famous. Another favorite is the Jewish cemetery in Prague. I saw it in 1983 and have never forgotten all the small hills where plots where stacked up on top of one another. In Austin, I’m fascinated by the Austin State Hospital Cemetery on 51st Street (have done a little research and writing on it) and the small cemetery on the grounds of the Austin State Supported Living Center. They of course tell the stories of people who had intellectual and/or mental challenges, or whose relatives got tired of dealing with them and had them committed to those institutions.
Thank you, Mary! Yes, I think this is why I'm interested in them, too: every grave tells the story of a life, and yet for most we can only imagine what happened before they ended up in that specific spot.
So enjoyed this! Beautifully and thoughtfully written. Many thanks. My wife and I enjoy visiting cemeteries whenever we travel. In the spring we were moved by visits to both American and British cemeteries for veterans of D-Day and the subsequent battles for Normandy and later strolled the crowded Momartre cemetery in Paris where many notable cultural figures rest. I think how a respectfully cultures handle human remains is related to how much the values individual lives. A couple of thoughts on these competing for space in urbanizing areas. Might there be value in the reminder of our own mortality to soften resistance to change in a neighborhood needed to make room for the next generation? And in densifying places, as you point out, cemeteries can have value green space for strolling or picnics. As far as “carbon sequestration” goes, any green in a dense city will not be able to much relative to local emissions. Denser neighborhoods, on the other hand, are almost always “greener” than leafy or lawn-filled suburbs because they enable far lower per-capita GHG emissions from housing and transport. Counterintuitive, but true.