February 2007: Milan - “IL MONUMENTALE”

The Cimitero Monumentale in Milan is located on the square given its name, Piazzale del Cimitero Monumentale. Near the heart of Milan, the cemetery was designed by the architect Carlo Maciachini (1818-1899).
It opened in 1866 and since then has been filled with a wide range of both contemporary and classical Italian sculptures. The impressive entrance, the large Famedio (Temple of Fame), a massive Neo-Medieval style building of marble and stone that serves as the tomb for some of the country's most honored citizens, opens up to a splendid necropolis rich with chapels and funeral monuments, masterpieces of contemporary and classical Italian sculptures as well as Greek temples, elaborate obelisks, and other original works of metal, marble and stone, which makes the cemetery an unique open-air museum.
As far back in time as we can reach, man has conducted a never-ending, ultimately losing battle with death to gain his own mortality.