Père Lachaise in Paris. Photo / Unsplash
From Chopin to the Brothers Grimm, Europe’s cemeteries are rich in history, art and atmosphere and well worth a visit, writes Arundhati Hazra.
Visiting a cemetery might seem like an odd thing to do on a vacation, but some of Europe’s cemeteries are like small cities of their own, with grand mausoleums and distinctive chapels, or landscaping and foliage that wouldn’t be out of place in a public park. They are also the resting place of famed writers, artists, musicians and scientists, and offer a peaceful way for fans to connect with their idols.
Here are some places worth visiting on your travels.
Paris’ largest cemetery is packed with famous names – writers like Oscar Wilde and Balzac, painters like Degas and Modigliani, and musicians like Chopin and Edith Piaf. Most popular is the grave of The Doors singer Jim Morrison, and fans often graffiti his headstone and nearby walls in his honour. Quirky traditions are associated with some tombs; women kiss the statue of 19th-century journalist Victor Noir to enhance fertility, letters are left at the tomb of medieval star-crossed lovers Heloise and Abelard in hope of finding love. The cemetery is a melange of funerary chapels, mausoleums and mortuary statues in styles from Renaissance to Art Deco; Oscar Wilde’s tomb is especially striking, adorned with a winged stone sphinx.
On a grassy patch near physicist Niels Bohr’s monumental grave pillar, children chase each other around, as their parents soak in the summer sun. Behind is a poplar-lined path popular with cyclists. Copenhagen’s Assistens Cemetery, located in the heart of the hip Norrebro district, doubles up as a park and public space, and it is common to see people chilling and hanging out amidst the tombs. Hans Christian Andersen’s grave is most popular, with numerous floral tributes for his 150th death anniversary in 2025. Nearby rest Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard and his family, and further down is physicist Hans Christian Orsted.
The Cemetery for Non-Catholic Foreigners, popularly known as the Protestant Cemetery, was Rome’s main burial ground for non-Catholic communities. It is bounded in one corner by the Pyramid of Cestius, which was part of the ancient city wall. Its most famous graves are those of John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, however, Keats’ grave is nameless. Disappointed by the lack of recognition during his lifetime, he refused to have his name inscribed and left the epitaph “Here lies One whose Name was writ in Water”. Shelley’s grave is simple too, marked by a slab in the ground with a quote from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. In contrast, some graves are studies of magnificence, topped with marble angels and intricately carved gravestone busts.
When the central cemetery of Vienna opened in 1874, it was unpopular because of its distance from the city. To encourage usage, authorities moved graves of famous people like Beethoven and Schubert to create Ehrengraber (honorary graves). Many leading composers of the City of Music are buried here, like Beethoven, Brahms, Strauss, Salieri and Schubert. The gate and chapel are built in the Art Nouveau style, and some graves stand out – composer Udo Jurgens’ gravestone resembles a covered white piano, while contemporary artist Franz West’s grave resembles his unconventional installations. The cemetery is the second largest in Europe; horse-drawn carriages offer whistle-stop tours.
If a forest by the beach sounds like the ideal place to spend one’s afterlife, there’s no place better than Hietaniemi. The cemetery, whose name translates to sand spit, overlooks a bay and is populated with pines and spruces and more than a few squirrels. It has a large military section dedicated to soldiers killed in the many wars of the 20th century, and a Statesmen’s Grove that is the final resting place of many Finnish presidents. Noted architect Alvar Aalto is buried on a gentle slope, while the grave of writer-illustrator Tove Jansson is a pilgrimage spot for Moomin fans.
The Old St Matthew’s Cemetery is in what was Berlin’s Millionaires’ Quarter, once among the city’s wealthiest areas. It has some palatial tombs, like the family crypt of banker David Hansemann, resembling a Greco-Roman mansion, or that of architect Alfred Messel. Simple though, are the graves of the Grimm brothers, with nondescript black headstones. Other notable people buried here include physicist Gustav Kirchhoff, father of modern pathology Rudolf Virchow and mathematician Leopold Kronecker.
The largest cemetery in Europe, La Almudena, was originally the burial ground for victims of Spain’s cholera epidemic in 1885. The cemetery has several buildings in the neo-Mudejar architectural style (a combination of Spanish and Islamic architecture), including the entrance gates and chapel. The cemetery is the final resting place of many Spanish celebrities, including Nobel Prize-winning author Vicente Aleixandre, singer Olga Ramos and actor Fernando Rey. Some graves are striking – singer Lola Flores has a statue of her famous singer son serenading her, while a circus director’s tomb has him choreographing an equestrian performance.