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ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO

/types form, function, meaning in architecture

Cemeteries in Milan

Massimo Ferrari

DESCIPTIONS BY Ilario Boniello Massimo Ferrari Lorenzo Margiotta Francesco Menegatti Tomaso Monestiroli Claudia Tinazzi

Itineraries through Milan’s architecture Modern architecture as a description of the city “Itineraries through Milan’s architecture: Modern architecture as a description of the city” is a project of the Order of Architects Planners Landscape Architects and Conservators of the Province of Milan and its Foundation.

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“Cemeteries in Milan” Massimo Ferrari

Edited by: Alessandro Sartori, Stefano Suriano, Barbara Palazzi

Images courtesy of: Archivio Antonio Cassi Ramelli Archivio Giovanni Muzio Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense Civica Raccolta delle Stampe Bertarelli Fondazione Aldo Rossi Fondazione MAXXI – Museo delle Arti del XXI secolo, Roma Giovanni Bonaretti, Tommaso Brighenti, Adalberto Del Bo, Marco Introini, Stefano Sala, Renato Sarno Group, Ornella Selvafolta, Stefano Topuntoli on the back cover: Giovanni Muzio, Monument to Fallen Milanese Soldiers, 1927-1929

The Foundation of the Order of Architects can be contacted regarding any unidentified rights for visual materials. www.ordinearchitetti.mi.it www.fondazione.ordinearchitetti.mi.it Cemeteries in Milan

Massimo Ferrari

“Cemeteries are a sad, but extremely important theme in architecture. As cities grew, so too did the cemeteries, but it is in the latter that we establish the memories, feelings and physical remains of people and also of cities themselves... ”. Aldo Rossi (1)

“Every city like Laudomia has another city by its side whose inhabitants are all called by the same names: it is the Laudomia of the dead, the cemetery. The more the Laudomia of the living becomes crowded and expands, the greater the expanse of tombs increases beyond the walls. The streets of the Laudomia of the dead are just wide enough to allow the gravedigger’s cart to pass, and many windowless buildings look out onto them; but the pattern of the streets and the arrangement of the dwellings repeat those of the living Laudomia, and in both, families are more and more crowded together, in niches stacked one on top of the other”. Italo Calvino (2)

Over a period of centuries, the issue of cemeteries, taken in their most general characteristics, has represented one of the greatest expressions of civilisation for a society. It embodies the perfect balance between art and architecture, between physical and symbolic space, between building and monument. Edgar Morin, addressing the theme of death in one of his first books, “L’Homme et la Mort” (1951), stressed that in conducting an anthropological analysis on the birth of humanity, it is possible to identify some moment, a precise and definite event, that drastically marks the transition from a natural to a fully human state of being. In the chapter “The edge of no man’s land,” he states that the first sign that bears witness to the birth of a conscious civilisation are “burials, as

CEMETERIES IN MILAN the first and most tangible test of a community’s and an individual’s concern about death” (3). Similarly, the bonds that have virtually always existed in literature, art, theatre and architecture between the worlds of the living and the dead — which in our eyes are inextricably intertwined — leads us to consider the possibility of a continuous parallel blurring the cultural boundary between these absolute two states being, allowing us to talk about the cities of the dead, houses of death, monuments to death while hardly distinguishing the differences between them, transposing the rules of the city to the theme of cemeteries. Once again, it is Aldo Rossi to remind us, “Architecture that was often expelled from urban centres, found a lofty application in the realm of cemeteries. Soon it went beyond being a single monument and made it as sublime as hope itself, “the last goddess” to flee from tombs” (4). Throughout the nineteenth century, and certainly for most of the twentieth, the design of modern necropolises, thanks to work of some of the best architects over the ages, constitutes a fundamental chapter in the history of Italian architecture; from Rodolfo Vantini to Gaetano Moretti, from Giulio Ulisse Arata to Carlo Maciachini and Giovanni Muzio, the corresponding interpretation to the theme of memory built an actual open-air laboratory in which a precise

MONUMENTAL CEMETERY STAGLIENO, VIEW OF THE PANTHEON (PHOTO BY STEFANO TOPUNTOLI)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN idea about both construction and a civil society was reflected. With this background, the design of cemeteries in the modern era no longer implied the simple application of pre-established norms limited solely to their functional operation, but it becomes the true and deepest desire to represent the “city of the dead” in the “city of the living”, its religious meaning in every profession of faith, a sense of respect linked to the reverence and custody of the dead. The representation of the values of civility and respect indicate, therefore, the deepest meaning of places for burying the dead, researching each time, in different ages, peoples, cultures and places, that synthesis and balance that is required. The history of burials, in its oldest forms related to the birth of humanity, finds its origins in primitive peoples, passes through the Classic Age, the Middle Ages and beyond. It is perhaps at the end of the eighteenth century, however, that the desire to design the space dedicated to cemeteries began being considered in terms of an autonomous and well-defined place, which then became the subject of public architecture, redeeming the previous examples: works of architecture neither founded in ideals nor in possession of metaphors for dwelling, they were projects that always referred to the elites or to places devoid of any civic sense, as was the case for the majority of burials, which were still collective.

MONUMENTAL CEMETERY STAGLIENO, VIEW OF THE STAIRCASE CONNECTING THE TWO LEVELS (PHOTO BY STEFANO TOPUNTOLI)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN The main transition that gave rise to the current identity and character of the subject of funerals is, therefore, that which is established between the cemeteries constructed up until the seventeenth century — located in the heart of the city but separate from it, whose main character is one of an unadorned, bare image, devoid of any memorial intent — and cemeteries from the mid-eighteenth century that started to regain their meaning and value by redefining the urban character, which is a synthesis of experimentation with political, religious and social motivations, but at the same time are works of architecture. The Edict of Saint Cloud, issued by Napoleon on June 12th, 1804 and extended to the whole of the Kingdom of Italy in 1806, in addition to bringing order the laws, standards and regulations concerning burials, promoted a transformation that was as political as it was concerned with public hygiene, opening a heated debate in society about the definition of which places would be appropriate, and which projects respectful, of the established conditions. From burials outside the city walls, to the need for places that were sunny and airy; from equality among all graves to epitaphs reserved for distinguished citizens, the edict’s political and health implications became the rationale for new ideas in the conceptualisation of cemeteries. It was the dawn a new architectural theme capable of encompassing the most civilised aspects of man, capable, throughout the nineteenth century, of becoming an extraordinary manifesto of typological-compositional potential in the design of spaces devoted to the cult of the dead, to which the subtlety of the issue and the fixity of the functional programme were able to give form. The research on type, i.e. the catalogue of typologies generated throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, outlined some key points, some of the standard approaches that begat and consolidated two main visions recurring in the definition of cemetery design. It identified the first as that belonging to Anglo- Saxon and Nordic culture, which found in the definition of gardens not only the proper resting place for the body after death, but also the necessary means to make the place of burial more normal and less austere to the living. The second vision, borne of Latin and Mediterranean culture, experimented through its monumental character the definition of enclosed and defined places within which to express, in the form of a city, the sacredness of the rite. So it is that in the Pere-Lachaise cemetery in Paris — designed by Alexandre

CEMETERIES IN MILAN Théodore Brongniart in 1803, defined by a romantic garden and by a promenade among the tombs of poets and writers — we recognise the prototype of the research that made the link between nature and the cemetery landscape explicit. Similarly, in Italy, following through on urban planning policies, a “monumental” typology of cemeteries was consolidated, from Rodolfo Vantini’s work in Brescia in 1813 to Giuseppe Barbieri in Verona in 1829, Carlo Barabino in Genoa in 1835, Carlo Maciachini, in Milan in 1863, confirming a sense of civilisation and collective memory and at the same time, of individual memory enclosed in a protected place. The works produced are geometric patterns

MONUMENTAL CEMETERY OF MILAN, OSSUARY VIEWED FROM THE CENTRAL AVENUE (PHOTO BY STEFANO TOPUNTOLI)

MONUMENTAL CEMETERY OF MILAN, VIEW OF FAÇADE (PHOTO BY STEFANO TOPUNTOLI)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN of neoclassical derivation, excellent examples, offspring of the models that preceded them, always superimposed on natural environment, in which the role of the perimeter walls prevails in the definition of the place, always positioned at the edge of a compact city where the architecture, without creating suggestions related to emphasising the topic, consistently used the given elements, often determined by use alone. They are two different compositional methods able to accommodate endless variations, contamination and experimentation in a spirit of renovation rather than re-interpretation. Just imagine: of all the changes made to the Cemetery of the 366 Toms designed in Naples by Ferdinando Fuga in 1762, a typological unicum—defined as a “death machine” in the rational and democratic succession of days of the year—that turned the right of anyone, even the most humble, to a proper burial and commemoration into poetry. Envisioning cemeteries as either a natural space or an urban one, therefore, spawned two major schools of thought, two major alternatives, that lead, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to building or only designing — sometimes simply imagining — places that, in their role as a museum set out the notion of an “ideal city of the dead and of memory”. They are urban models, closed perimeters, composed and measured by simple distribution axes or landscaped gardens, open spaces with great natural qualities; walls, the entrance, the paths, nature, individual monuments dedicated to families, chapels, the crematorium, are all

EXPANSION OF THE CEMETERY OF SAN CATALDO IN MODENA, AERIAL VIEW (PHOTO BY STEFANO TOPUNTOLI, COURTESY FOUNDATION ALDO ROSSI)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN the main actors of these compositions, which over time have altered the landscape, accustoming us to their presence. Unlike in the past, these modern works of architecture, in their newer incarnations, suffered from their close dependence on the organisation and expansion of the urban form, becoming subjects of the city, part of it. In the best examples, contemporary cemeteries are often as a simple extension of existing cemeteries and have the task of summarising the principles in simple forms, combining into a single design the direct relationship with nature of Nordic cemeteries and the delimitation of this most sacred place that is more frequent in southern Europe. The Forest Cemetery in Stockholm by Gunnar Asplund, built with Sigurd Lewerentz between 1917 and 1940, represented an architectural model that is still unsurpassed in its ability to combine the pain of separation and the respect for the dead with the natural landscape. An example of a garden cemetery, it was built over the years with a succession of small acts that indicate the stages of a path through nature: the chapel, the crematorium, the cross and the graves in the woods are exciting places for their simplicity, their adequacy. They are architectures that are able to establish a balance with the serene landscape that surrounds the pathway and build a unity of place. In more recent times, Aldo Rossi’s San Cataldo Cemetery in Modena, designed in 1971 with Gianni Braghieri is the clearest example of the idea of a City of the Dead. In this project, its closed

EXPANSION OF THE CEMETERY OF SAN CATALDO IN MODENA, DETAIL OF THE OSSUARY (PHOTO BY STEFANO TOPUNTOLI, COURTESY FOUNDATION ALDO ROSSI)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN form, like the foundation of a city; the relationship with the city set up by the gateway; the similarities to the spaces in built cities, which characterise Rossi’s entire body of work, are translated into the design of a grand, osteological complex that, better than others, dramatises the close connection between life and death. Even more recently, the 5o expansion of the Cemetery of Voghera by Antonio Monestiroli, built in 1995 with Thomas Monestiroli, in its open-court layout, goes beyond the boundary between the two different typologies, building a secure, quiet place overlooking the countryside. It is a large, open atrium where a thousand mute tombstones mark the graves gathered inside the perimeter wall, which is above the floors of the galleries. There are several examples that have various bearings on the Milanese territory. Often, they are manifested as simple walls whose primary role is to identify an inside and an outside, building spaces that are quiet and crowded, public and private, closed off and open to its surroundings, expressive as well as modest in its forms. The events that most closely relate to the definition of the theme accompany the history of the city itself, its construction and its morphology, highlight existing signs, occupy places, transform visits, appropriate parts of the city. As in all of Latin culture and tradition referring to early Christianity, the first cemeteries — or more accurately the places dedicated to the burial of the dead — can actually trace their origins to many of the churches still present in and around Milan, conceived to house the relics of the early martyrs. Over the centuries, cemeteries have been in equal measure welcomed within the heart of the city or kept away from its centre due to health concerns. They have silently occupied parts of Milan, often mingling with the church complexes or humanitarian buildings. Up until the beginning of the 1600s, Milan continued to entrust the rite of burial to small cemeteries in the city: three in Brolo are used by the church of Santo Stefano and two neighbouring hospitals; one in front of the Basilica of San Lorenzo; one in San Pietro in Lodi one in front of the church of Santa Eufemia; four others at the churches of Sant’Antonio, San Carpoforo, Santa Maria della Scala and one in the apse of the cathedral, known as the Campo Santo. Around the same period, however, the remarkable and uncontrolled population growth coupled with the critical and constantly-worsening sanitary conditions, lead to considering the need to add additional burial grounds within the city.

CEMETERIES IN MILAN Updating part of Ospedale Maggiore to accomodate the burial of deceased patients from all hospitals across the city, along with the subsequent construction of the hospital’s Foppone, or communal grave called the “New Tombs” — which was closely dependent on the former — represented an attempt to face this new emergency through the use of architecture, urban facilities that were already present within the confines of the city and typologically established, integrating them at a later date with the establishment of specially dedicated, autonomous buildings. From the second half of the

EXPANSION OF THE CEMETERY VOGHERA, DETAIL OF THE COURT (PHOTO BY MARCO INTROINI)

EXPANSION OF THE CEMETERY VOGHERA, OVERALL VIEW (PHOTO BY STEFANO TOPUNTOLI)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN eighteenth century forward, the Austrian government, staunchly supporting the enlightened citizenry and out of concerns for public health and safety, decided to procure the transfer of all urban cemeteries outside the city walls, promulgating an edict in 1776 that forbade burial in and around churches and, from 1785, planning the design and the subsequent opening of five new cemeteries, each intended for an specific sector of the city and its related outlying areas. The abolition of these five cemeteries coincided with the long and difficult decision for Milan to develop, as was the case for other Italian cities, a single, large cemetery that would become the only burial ground for the entire city. In this sense, the cemetery by Maciachini and, a few years later, the cemetery in Musocco discovered their civic, representational and functional raison d’etre in the desire to give the city a single place to honour the dead and allow the living to remember their loved ones. At the same time, this type of splintering (which stemmed from the desire to separate the historical city centre and bourgeois residential areas from the suburban, working-class neighbourhoods) represented the last real opportunity in Milan to design cemeteries, two grand, urban cemeteries that could take centre stage in the transformation plan of the city, on par with other urban projects. Since the beginning of the 1800s, in the meantime, even the small, independent communities neighboring the city, Bruzzano and Lambrate for example, had begun to develop small cemeteries, simple shapes that adhere compositionally to the essential functional elements: the definition of the place, the entrance and the distribution of the burial plots. The history of these simple examples — often built without a comprehensive project — was transformed or even halted altogether during the 1900s when more or less substantial expansions, often fundamental and radical redesigns, permanently modified the cemeteries’ original layouts. The Memorial to Fallen Soldiers and Commonwealth War Cemetery in the Trenno park are special cases that indicate, in this proposed chronological selection, two separate occasions in which the representation of our collective memory in the face of war unites everyone in dismay at the death of reason. The monument from 1929 by Giovanni Muzio, built after winning the design competition with Alberto Alpago Novello, Ottavio Cabiati, Gio Ponti and Tommaso Buzzi, almost literally interprets the theme of the very title of the project itself: a shrine within the built city. A uniform, geometric shape together with a composition that

CEMETERIES IN MILAN is exact, central and unambiguous charaterise the immutable character of this architectural work that, in proclaiming its monumentality, borders on a sculptural form, driving off any true sense of grief and mourning in favour of lifeless, official sentimentality. Similarly, in the Trenno park, it is difficult for us to recognise ourselves in the notion of an English shrine, whose character is too distant from our own history. The essential elements that comprise the cemetery, manifested with extreme order and simplicity, move us to remember the fallen of World War II more than to feel the emotion of the space that they have created.

GENERAL PLAN OF THE MEMORIAL TO FALLEN SOLDIERS (IMAGE FROM THE ARCHIVIO MUZIO)

AXONOMETIC OF THE FIRST PROJECT FOR THE MEMORIAL TO FALLEN SOLDIERS, 1926 (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO MUZIO)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN Recent history draws the succession to a close, bringing us to the present-day interpretation of the tradition in cemetery design. At the same time, it opens up new forms of relationships between the physical definition of cemetery space and its dispersion in nature. In this sense, the cemetery in Rozzano by Aldo Rossi with Giovanni Da Pozzo and Francesco Saverio Fera, designed in 1988 and built a few years after his death, proposes a new interpretation of the cemetery- city of the living that, despite its small size, is rooted in the territory like a small fortified village, recalling its structure and rules. And finally, the recent cemetery by Adalberto Del Bo and Elisabetta Cozzi with Luca Larosa once again opens up the search for the right balance between the natural environment and the typological definition of space. In the new cemetery park in Novate Milanese, the open design of the burial grounds, characterised by the solid structure of the walls and by the more domestic, pergola-covered walkways, builds the backbone of the plan that is superimposed on the natural environment, embracing it without changing it. The chosen sequence constructs an itinerary in twelve stations. Twelve representative themes that organise, within the typological varieties that have settled over the centuries, a chronological narrative that highlights the constants in the relationship between the cemeterial theme, the city and nature and decides to emphasise the examples that more than others, in the diversity of their individual reasons, make up an exhaustive sequence that testifies to the historical evolution of the idea of cemeteries, which in its most general characteristics is aligned with the Italian conception. They are twelve works that show different possible interpretations of the sacred theme, different ways of relating to the city or to the territory, different formal translations of precise typological choices that are united by a strong evocative power both in the reduction of signs that identify them, as in the clarity of the forms that constitute them.

MASSIMO FERRARI

(1)Aldo Rossi, from the Project Report for the cemetery in Rozzano, in: Alberto Ferlenga (ed.), Aldo Rossi, Opera completa 1993-1996, Electa, Milan 1996. (2) Italo Calvino, Le città invisibili, Einaudi, Turin 1972. (3) Edgar Morin, L’Homme et la Mort, Corrêa, Paris, 1951 (Italian translation edited by Livia Bellanova Pascolino, L’uomo e la morte, Newton Compton, Rome 1980). (4) Aldo Rossi, QA 7, in: Aldo Rossi, I Quaderni Azzurri (1968-1992), Electa-The Getty Research Institute, Milan 1999.

CEMETERIES IN MILAN NEW CEMETERY PARK IN NOVATE MILANESE. VIEW OF THE CHAPEL FROM THE NORTH (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE DEL BO STUDIO)

NEW CEMETERY PARK IN NOVATE MILANESE. VIEW OF THE CASELLI ON THE NORTH FAÇADE (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE DEL BO STUDIO)

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Rotonda di San Michele ai Nuovi Sepolcri, Foppone dell’ospedale / 1695-1731 / A. Arrigoni, F. Croce, C.F. Raffagno

via Enrico Besana, Milano

Commonly known as “Foppone Tombs), the funerary grounds were built dell’Ospedale” (the Hospital’s gravesite), the between 1695 and 1730, consisting of two cemetery arose from the requirement for separate and independent parts. Located new burial space to accommodate Ospedale in the centre is the church of San Michele Maggiore“s expanding needs that could (1713), based on a central plan in the form no longer be satisfied within the hospital of a Greek-cross, with four arms oriented grounds themselves. towards the cardinal points that meet at Not far from Cá Granda, the main the centre under an octagonal lantern, the theme of the cemetery complex is that of place of ritual celebration. It is entirely the perimeter enclosure, a wall system surrounded by an expanse of lawn, which distinguishing between inside and outside. in turn is completely encircled by the wall Officially called ”Nuovi Sepolcri” (New system that is divided into eight segments,

AERIAL VIEW OF THE BESANA-CALDARA-DAISY-BARNABA-MONTENERO AREA (PHOTO BY STEFANO TOPUNTOLI)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN Rotonda di San Michele ai Nuovi Sepolcri, Foppone dell’ospedale / 1695-1731 / Arrigoni, Croce, Raffagno and composed of an open colonnade of Milan’s Foppone is that despite being towards the church and a brick wall with insurmountable, you can see through the windows facing outwards. wall to the other side thanks to the openings The “wall” theme is typical and occurs that have been placed along the perimeter frequently in the history of cemetery wall, one in each span of the colonnade. design, In reality, the two even coincide Quite large, the windows are similar to at times, as is the case with the Rotonda those of the late baroque or neo-classical della Besana, where the exposed-brick wall palaces in Milan, adorned with mouldings surrounding the place transforms it into an that are always made of exposed brick. island, accessible only through four portals, It is almost a metaphysical window, each corresponding to the entrances of one that allows you to participate in the the church situated inside the courtyard. place without actually physically entering In this case, the portico is in reality also it, one that allows you to see the city of the the place of burial and the essential nature dead from the city of the living without of the architectural composition bestows necessarily crossing the threshold. The wall character and recognition on both the becomes a barrier that is insurmountable theme and the place. The unique aspect but not secret, wherein the perimeter wall and windows are an expression of the VIEW INSIDE THE PORTICO respect necessary for contemplating death, (PHOTO BY T. BRIGHENTI, G. BONARETTI, S. SALA) giving it civic value.

TOMASO MONESTIROLI

GIOVANNI BATTISTA RICCARDI, VIEW OF THE OSPEDALE MAGGIORE’S GRAVES, WATERCOLOUR 1734 (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE CIVICA RACCOLTA DELLE STAMPE BERTARELLI)

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Abolished network of cemeteries / 1785-1787 (transferred between 1883 and 1896)

Porta Venezia, Porta Ticinese, Porta Garibaldi, Porta Magenta, Porta Vittoria, Milano

In 1776, when Pietro Verri began writing restore the custom of burying the dead in the history of Milan and the people of the areas removed from the churches and far city finally witnessed the opening of the from inhabited areas; to build, where none Brera Art Academy, the city’s governing yet exist, cemetery sites, in the form and authorities became concerned about the manner specified in art. 8 of the circular of problem of population growth and the December 31, 1774; to close existing private consequent need for new burial sites within family tombs in churches and oratories as the city limits. Faced with this contingency, well as those existing in outlying churches the governor Archduke Ferdinand of of the nuns.” This edict, which in a certain Austria and Minister Carlo Giuseppe di sense seemed to be a timid forerunner of Firmian tried to restore regulatory order the Napoleonic edict of Saint-Cloud, finally in burial procedures through an imperial forbade the practice of burials in the heart edict, commanding “the Registrars to of the consolidated city, in churches and

LOCATIONS OF THE TRANSFERRED AFFILIATED CEMETERIES PLAN OF THE PORTA VENEZIA CEMETERY (IMAGE FROM THE BRAIDENSE NATIONAL LIBRARY) (IMAGE FROM THE BRAIDENSE NATIONAL LIBRARY)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN Abolished network of cemeteries / 1785-1787 (transferred between 1883 and 1896) religious institutions by entrusting the either one- or one-and-a-half-bricks thick; municipality with the task of build places an open, central area for burials; a single specially designed to accommodate the cross, made of wood or iron, marked the dead, irregardless of wealth, beyond the spot for celebrating the burial rites. city limits. To meet these regulations, a With the construction of the Monumental number of projects were presented in 1779 cemetery and the Cemetery in Musocco by the architects Giuseppe Piermarini and a few years later, all of these minor Giovanni Antonio Bettoli for the creation cemeteries, which by then had been of new cemeteries. In 1785, land suitable squeezed by urban expansion and to accommodate these new facilities was were considered insufficient to contain allocated but it wasn’t until 1787 that Milan subsequent burials, were finally abolished would actually be in a position to physically between 1890 and 1896, guaranteeing provide new cemeteries, allowing the tombs that the remains would be transferred located in churches, porticoes and in their the two new, large, urban cemeteries. vicinity to be emptied and permanently Thus Milan returned to reflecting on the closed. theme of cemeteries. No longer were they Five small cemeteries were located considered simply from a functional point outside of the Spanish walls near the of view but also for their deeper meaning, historical gates to the city in facilities expressing a clear desire to address their attached to existing churches that had representational nature. already been used to accommodate the MASSIMO FERRARI sick during the plague. In a setting that was still rural, the cemeteries were defined solely by a walled enclosure, devoid of any PLAN OF THE PORTA VITTORIA CEMETERY (IMAGE FROM THE BRAIDENSE NATIONAL LIBRARY) representational intention. Each of the five enclosures was different from the others in terms of geometry and size but they were all united by their very modest character, related only to their functional needs and simplicity of construction. The definition of these places was entrusted to a few simple signs, which were repeated: an entrance marked by two buildings or simply by a wooden gate in the brick wall—usually

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Cimitero Monumentale / 1863-1867 / Carlo Maciachini with Celeste Clericetti

piazzale cimitero Monumentale 2, Milano

For the city of Milan, the Cimitero carried out in two phases and completed in Monumentale was a true opportunity to 1863, saw, in the project by architect Carlo design and interpret a large, urban-scale Maciachini, the most convincing responses project following the Unification of Italy to the requests of the Committee presided in 1861, even before there was a material over by Camillo Boito: “Connect, respecting and operational response to the need for the requirements of decency and ritual, new burial grounds and it provided an and also looking to art and perspective, the opportunity to represent, in an exemplary architectural part of cemeteries with the manner, the place for respecting death in its culture of gardens”. most civilised value. With these words, Boito, on behalf Built in the northwest quadrant of of the Committee, established the Milan’s urban fabric, in an area that in those competition’s principle theme: architecture years marked the physical and concrete and nature. In Maciachini’s proposal, boundary between the agrarian landscape this was translated into an inhabited and the compact city, the Cimitero enclosure, that was neither regular nor Monumentale was the result of a long uniform, but included a garden. As an debate that since 1837 had witnessed nearly urban metaphor, the pattern of streets, forty years of competitions and projects that paths, major and minor axes organised lead nowhere. Only the last competition, the garden in a rational way and created a

VIEW OF THE MEMORIAL CHAPEL FROM THE ENTRANCE AERIAL VIEW OF THE CIMITERO MONUMENTALE AREA (PHOTO BY STEFANO TOPUNTOLI) (PHOTO BY STEFANO TOPUNTOLI)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN Cimitero Monumentale / 1863-1867 / C. Maciachini with C. Clericetti variety of places that could accommodate The continuous transparency so ardently various modes of burial, various ambitions, sought after by Carlo Maciachini acted various needs: green areas with flowers, as a visual connection through enclosed simple headstones in memory of the dead places, which were never completely or real monuments and mausoleums to closed off or separated from view in order consecrate and bear witness to the value of to allow an unobstructed and continuous a family. The perimeter of the cemetery is view of the surrounding areas, extending a composition made of distinct elements, to the landscape beyond. The Cimitero autonomous parts joined together, of which Monumentale, was truly an artistic and the entrance, extending across nearly architectural laboratory, welcomed all the the entire front of the site is the fulcrum. twentieth century avant-garde movements Maciachini organised and brought together and still remains an work-in-progress, a all the elements along the main façade space in constant transformation, that while facing the city: the church, transformed changing, never surrenders its clear and in 1870 into a national memorial chapel, established image. galleries and separate entrances to two CLAUDIA TINAZZI cemeteries for followers of other faiths (non-Catholic and Jewish). The main axis GENERAL PLAN, PROJECT BY C. MACIACHINI 1863 (IMAGE continues both physically and visually the COURTESY OF THECIVICA RACCOLTA STAMPE BERTARELLI) boulevard that leads to the entrance of the cemetery from the centre of Milan. It passes through the entire cemetery, connecting the various holy places of worship: Church (Famedio) - Ossuary - Crematorium Temple, which are themselves organised in a sequential order that in its ideal nature, composes a narrative recounting changes in Catholic rites which, since Pope Paul VI in 1963, re-embraced cremation among burial practices. The project was used as a vehicle to expand the Latin typology of cemeteries in which architectural design, predominantly monumental in character, prevailed over the natural landscape,

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Chapels in Cimitero Monumentale / 1867-2011 /

piazzale cimitero Monumentale 2, Milano

The numerous chapels, tombs and the architecture that contains it without funerary monuments that populate the completely depending on it, relating to it in Cimitero Monumentale in Milan have a precise way, searching for relationships, been orderly integrated without dissention points of view into Maciachini’s geometric, neoclassical In this sense, for the artists and design throughout its long history. Above architects who had the good fortune to all, in their ideals, they represent one of the work within its grounds, the Cimitero best examples of one work of architecture Monumentale represented an extraordinary englobing others. The veiled relationship opportunity to address these issues. between the interior and exterior gives rise Their work gained even more value after to a succession of images, comparisons the inauguration of the cemetery in and contrasts, of vistas that are always Musocco (1895), which was followed by new, ever-changing and unique. Interior the decision to dedicate the perimeter works of architecture; works of architecture wall in Maciachini’s project exclusively to inside other works of other architecture; perpetual burial plots. It is for this reason exterior-interior and, to the point of being that today we can still see, like in an open- paradoxical, they tell about the complexity air museum, a heterogeneous unity that of a theme that is borne of a common way is always enriched with new “characters” of looking at constructions, that, although reciting original variations on the theme of autonomous, are necessarily compared with the family chapel by introducing the idea

INTERIOR VIEW OF SPACE DEDICATED TO BURIALS INTERIOR VIEW OF SPACE DEDICATED TO BURIALS (PHOTO BY ORNELLA SELVAFOLTA) (PHOTO BY ORNELLA SELVAFOLTA)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN Chapels in Cimitero Monumentale / 1867-2011 / of a model as simulation, as a generator • Manusardi chapel, Figini and Pollini of architecture. In conclusion, the close (sculptor F. Melotti) 1940 collaboration witnessed between architects, • Girola chapel, Piero Portaluppi (sculptor artists and poets — a rare occurrence in the G. Castiglioni) 1941 history of architecture — is able to testify, • Monument to the victims of Nazi in exemplary cases, to the potential of concentration camps, BBPR 1945-50 collaboration between different disciplines, • Chinelli monument chapel, Renzo between different art forms. Within his own Zavanella (sculptor L. Fontana) 1949 of expertise, each is called upon to express • Achille chapel, Figini and Pollini (sculptor the same sentiment within the context of F.Melotti) 1950-52 a single, common work, to tell the same • Centemeri chapel, Mario Baciocchi story, to celebrate the same family and (sculptor G. Pomodoro), 1969-1973 its experiences, all the while building an MASSIMO FERRARI inventory of Milan’s compositional and form-giving skills. The following is not MISSIROLI TOMB, intended as a complete description but (PHOTO BY STEFANO TOPUNTOLI) rather a simple listing of selected works, inviting in-depth study, one by one:

• Sonzogno chapel, Carlo Maciachini and Giovanni Crescini (sculptor F. Mina) 1875 • Occa chapel, Camillo Boito (sculptor A. Soldini) 1889 • Nathan chapel, Marcello Piacentini, 1916 • Korner chapel, Giulio Ulissse Arata (sculptures A. Wildt) 1929 • Wildt monument, Giovanni Muzio (sculptor A. Wildt) 1931 • Borletti chapel, Gio Ponti (sculptor L. Andreotti) 1931 • Porcile chapel, Enrico Agostino Griffini, 1934 • Motta chapel, Melchiorre Bega (sculptor G. Manzù) 1939-1952

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Cimitero Maggiore or Cemetary of Musocco / 1889-1895 / Enrico Brotti, Luigi Mazzocchi

piazzale cimitero Maggiore, Milano

Designed by the engineers Brotti burials in perpetuity. After a long period of and Mazzocchi and opened in 1895, the study and consultation selecting the most Cimitero Maggiore is the largest cemetery appropriate area of the suburbs, the council in the city. At the end of the nineteenth decided to build the new cemetery near the century, after having determined that Certosa di Garegnano, close to the town of the Cimitero Monumentale was wholly Musocco. The terrain was considered the inadequate to fill the needs of a rapidly most appropriate for burial practices since expanding population in both the city and it was four metres above the water table surrounding territory, and in light of a and therefore suitable for the assimilation health and sanitation situation on the verge of organic decomposition. In 1887, the of collapse, the issue was raised of whether project was approved in principle and in to have a single, large, new cemetery, or 1895 Archbishop Cardinal Ferrari gave his to have a greater number of more modest blessing to the cemetery. ones distributed throughout the city. It was In 1895, the cemetery was over the health commission that pushed for the 400,000 square metres in area and had an creation of a single cemetery. access road that, through its own system Intended for burials on a ten- or of avenues and a special tramway, was twenty-year rotation cycle, its construction connected to the Cimitero Monumentale. made it possible that the Monumental Rectangular in shape and composed of 64 Cemetery, which had been built a few sections which were further subdivided years earlier, be reserved exclusively for into 256 smaller blocks each. The cemetery

FRONT VIEW OF THE CEMETERY (PHOTO BY STEFANO TOPUNTOLI)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN Cimitero Maggiore or Cemetary of Musocco / 1889-1895 / E. Brotti, L. Mazzocchi is surrounded on the inside by a stone extensions, which did not alter the original parapet and externally by a four-metre high plan: the first in 1924, and subsequently in rampart. 1934, up to the present-day grounds, which On the ground floor of the building that are divided into 96 sections and includes today makes up the front of the cemetery, the Jewish section. we find: area for the inspectorate and In 1933, the ossuary was also built in religious functions; the viewing room; two the centre of the first roundabout, along morgues, one for the storage of coffins and the main boulevard. At the same time, one for the storage deceased from infectious construction began on the perimeter diseases; miscellaneous other service areas. galleries — which weren’t included in the On the upper floors are residences for the design of the original project — where administrative staff, while ossuaries are the space for the interment of remains located underground. was divided between cubicles and The Doric style chosen for the project columbariums. The outer walls of these allowed every element of the composition galleries were characterised by small to be decorated with sobriety. The chapels, which were then granted for use as material used aimed at achieving a simple family tombs. ornamentation, but with an austere LORENZO MARGIOTTA character. During the 1900s, the Cimitero Maggiore experienced a number of

PLAN OF THE ENTRANCE TO THE CIMITERO MAGGIORE AERIAL VIEW OF THE CIMITERO MAGGIORE IN MILAN (IMAGE FROM THE BIBLIOTECA NAZIONALE BRAIDENSE) (PHOTO BY STEFANO TOPUNTOLI)

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Monument to Fallen Milanese Soldiers / 1927-1929, Giovanni Muzio (coordinatore) / 1973, Mario Baccini

largo Caduti Milanesi per la Patria, Milano

The definitive awarding the commission near the Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio. and site selection took place following a The War Memorial is located on a site that, lengthy debate that focused on two issues. according to tradition, coincides with the The first was the theme of the monument cemetery from the early Christian area, itself: the Monument to the Fallen, also where, at the beginning of the 1900s, referred to as the Victory Monument. The demolition of houses began in order to second centred on the discussion about create a buffer zone between the basilica which profession would be best suited to of Sant’Ambrogio and the surrounding represent its importance, architecture or urban fabric. The monument itself, clad in sculpture. These were the expectations of a white marble, is composed of an octagonal two-stage competition that did not proclaim ambulatory that revolves around a 43-metre a winner, ending with directly awarding tall central structure, also octagonal, that the project to Giovanni Muzio who, along is isolated from the surrounding area by with Alberto Alpago Novello, Tomaso Buzzi, a perimeter wall, delineated by a series of Ottavio Cabiati and Gio Ponti, received the arches in dark stone. A colonnade along commission to build the new monument the octagonal building’s axis indicates the

VIEW OF THE ENTRANCE TO THE MONUMENT (PHOTO BY STEFANO TOPUNTOLI)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN Monument to Fallen Milanese Soldiers / 1927-1929, G. Muzio (coordinatore) / 1973, M. Baccini access road. The ambulatory houses and the pre-existing context (the rear of the protects a series of sculptures. The first basilica of Sant’Ambrogio and the barracks that comes into view, placed on the axis for the Veliti, a branch of the armed forces), of the entrance, is a large, bronze statue as well as successive additions, such as the of Sant’Ambrogio, 5 metres tall, by the entrance to the Catholic University, also sculptor Adolfo Wildt. designed by Muzio and built a few years This is the first in a series of sculptural later, constitute a unique place in the city, a works to which a complex iconographical place devoid of any building fabric, made up programme is entrusted that on one hand exclusively of monuments. refers to the sacred nature of the place — ILARIO BONIELLO Saint Ambrose and the Christian martyrs — and on the other to the facts related to EAST-WEST SECTION the Great War. In this way, the architecture (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO MUZIO) of the building, in the monumentality of its form and the conventional elements of its composition, completely delegates the recognition of the specific theme to the sculpture. The place with the greatest character, the space dedicated to the memory of the Fallen, is located on the lower level. Within the central building, a staircase winds its way down to the crypt below, which coincides with the upper ambulatory. The names of Milanese who sacrificed their lives in the First World War are displayed in bronze on the walls. From here, one can access the shrine designed by Mario Baccini in 1973, constructed entirely below ground level in the form of an amphitheater that continues down another two levels lower than the crypt, which is the final resting place the bodies of those who died in the two World Wars. The Monument to the Fallen, along with

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Cemetery in Chiaravalle / 1936 / 2008, Aline Leroy

via Sant’Arialdo, Chiaravalle

The cemetery in Chiaravalle is located to later, in 2008 — is nearly square in plan the south east of Milan, in the agricultural and consists of a simple structure which, park near the Cistercian Abbey, Santa like a big wall, runs around the entire Maria di Chiaravalle, a place where even perimeter, defined by a portico that houses today the small, rural buildings scattered the columbariums. throughout the landscape must face the Covered completely by a gabled roof, natural environment, often drawing rules, the building’s outward-facing, public façade dimensions and alignments from it. is a red brick wall while its domestic, more The oldest part of the cemetery complex private façade is composed of columns and — opened in 1936 and expanded much semicircular arches in white stone in brick,

VIEW OF THE PORTICO WITH THE COLOMBARIUMS (PHOTO BY T. BRIGHENTI, G. BONARETTI, S. SALA)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN Cimitero di Chiaravalle / 1936 / 2008, A. Leroy which open onto the central space defined formal presence. The main façade, on via by the burial grounds and family graves, Sant’Arialdo, is constituted by the tripartite interspersed with tall and lush vegetation. structure of the main entrance, which is A precise and uniform geometric shape, taller than the perimeter wall. Two other enclosed and inward-looking, it was entrances are located on axis between it built with the typological logic of a “wall- and the four corners of the square — each building”: a portico that, in its homogeneity, characterised by a structure that is also tall can accommodate several exceptions: the and windowless. Similar openings are also main and secondary entrances, chapel and found on both side elevations, forming a places of worship, which, while remaining perfect cross that culminates in the elegant faithful to the wall concept, possess central ossuary. The side opposite the their own individual and well-defined entrance, flanked by two service structures, is shorter than the main façade and has a

VIEW TOWARD THE EXPANSION’S WALL chapel with a crypt. (PHOTO BY T. BRIGHENTI, G. BONARETTI, S. SALA) The project to completion and update the cemetery, designed by Aline Leroy in 2008, dealt with the interiors and exterior of the north-east and south-west side, increasing the overall area to the current 82,000 square metres. An irregular perimeter wall is no longer very well- defined and in some places seems to want to open onto the landscape. Within the enclosure, the graves are marked by simple, tree-lined paths.

LORENZO MARGIOTTA

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Milan Commonwealth War Cemetery in Trenno Park / 1945 / Parks Department Office, City of Milan

via cascina Bellaria, Milano

The Trenno park was designed and nations that participated in the Liberation built in 1971 by the City of Milan’s Parks of the city. In Milan, already liberated by Department Office, which converted a the Partisans, the 4th U.S. Army Corps hitherto-productive agricultural area into entered without a fight on May 2, 1945, a public park. Within its grounds, not far the day Germany surrendered. The Allied from the Bellaria farmhouse, is the Milan forces incurred few losses, so in large part Commonwealth War Cemetery: final resting the cemetery contains the remains of those places for 417 soldiers of World War II killed in war zones from areas surrounding who were nationals of Commonwealth Milan.

OVERALL VIEW OF THE CEMETERY ENTRANCE (PHOTO BY T. BRIGHENTI, G. BONARETTI, S. SALA)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN Milan Commonwealth War Cemetery in Trenno Park / 1945 / Parks Department Office, City of Milan

The small cemetery in the countryside a cross, represent the physical space of the is surrounded by a wall and protected by cemetery. large trees. It encompasses all the rhetoric The small buildings that make up the of a military cemetery, a place where the cemetery are able to give the sense of a community can recognise and instantly serene and peaceful place. The cemetery is recall the scope and size of an event as a place that is always both accessible and painful and colossal as that of the second solemn, where the silence is a fundamental world war. The architectural elements, element in the construction of the space arranged symmetrically with respect to itself. The white stone crosses, aligned in the pathways, which branch out from a four groups and arranged in strict order, centre marked by a pillar surmounted by are testimony to the sacrifice made by an individual to whom the dignity of being human is now returned. In their serial DETAIL OF A HEADSTONE (PHOTO BY T. BRIGHENTI, G. BONARETTI, S. SALA) succession, they speak of equality and shared sacrifice of each of the fallen. On the far side opposite the entrance, there is a small, brick chapel, a meditative place where the visitors’ book is kept along with a document with the information relating to the cemetery. The small war cemetery in Milan is part of an endless amount of sites scattered throughout the province that are dedicated to the memory of the fallen of World War II , a constellation of geographical points that time after time, redraw the lines that were crossed by the war front

FRANCESCO MENEGATTI

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Bruzzano Cemetery / 1811 / 1957-1970, Antonio Cassi Ramelli (expansion)

piazza Martiri della Deportazione 1, Milano

In an essay on sacred and funerary compositional elements “are not numerous architecture written in the ’40s, the nor too subtly linked together so that, architect Antonio Cassi Ramelli listed, given the opportunity of selecting their following the tradition of manuals in relative positions within a project, many the 1800s, the compositional elements explanations are required”. In other words, of a cemetery system: the access group, there are a finite number of given elements the burial grounds complex and the and the character of the building can only buildings used to house the memorial be the result of the composition of these chapel (the famedio), columbarium and parts, so Cassi Ramelli, in designing the ossuaries. He emphasised how these cemetery Bruzzano, begins once again

AERIAL VIEW OF THE CEMETERY (PHOTO BY STEFANO TOPUNTOLI)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN Bruzzano Cemetery / 1811 / 1957-1970, A. Cassi Ramelli (expansion) from this extensive experience. All parts in each opening, imitating the sepulchral of the cemetery that require shelter have monuments of antiquity. On the one hand, been placed in a long, linear building that this prevents being able to look directly becomes the monumental cemetery’s façade out of the tunnels; on the other, it impedes towards the city. On axis with this single perceiving movement on the interior from building, a large portal opens up, defining the outside. The long façades to the side the open-air atrium that leads to the burial of the entrance therefore, following an grounds, an area that, forty years after established tradition, are characterised by having been planting, has become a lovely, the sarcophagi placed within the wall, thus welcoming garden planted with trees that being visible from the city and identifying are visible as one enters from the city. All the nature of the building. At the same time, activities related to the operation of the by raising them above ground level, the fact cemetery are oriented towards this atrium. that they occlude the view of the interior To the side, raised above ground level, there preserves the sanctity of the place. is a gallery system where the columbariums Not all parts of the cemetery can be traced are located, occupying the rest of the back to the original project, but even in building. The galleries perpendicular the non-exact correspondence between to the building interrupt it with tall design and built results, the place’s identity openings so that their cross-sections are has been guaranteed by the unity of the visible on the façade and are illuminated principle that identifies it. for their entire depth. Like in memorial ILARIO BONIELLO chapels, a sarcophagus has been placed

PLAN AND ELEVATION OF THE CEMETERY ENTRANCE (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO ANTONIO CASSI RAMELLI)

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Lambrate Cemetery / 1826 / 1980-1988, Enrico Gianni, Renato Sarno (crematorium and expansion)

piazza dei Caduti e dei dispersi in Russia, Milano

Lambrate cemetery is located between as a garden composed of large flower beds, the east ring road and via Rombon, a short within which the burial grounds have been distance from the Milano Lambrate train inserted. station and the Feltre district. Built between The centrepiece of the cemetery, which 1957 and 1960 by a group of architects is accessed after having passed through the coordinated by Gino Pollini (1), the entrance structure, is the crematorium’s cemetery covers an area of 230,000 square chapel, constructed in 1988 by the engineer metres of which 30,000 square metres are and architect Gianni Franco Renato Sarno. zoned as parkland intended conceptually The main volume of the new crematorium as the continuation of the nearby Lambro is an extruded volume with an equilateral park. The cemetery was originally built for triangular cross-section and a sloping roof. the independent municipality of Lambrate The reinforced concrete building seemingly at the beginning of the nineteenth century floats on the glassy surface of an artificial and remained unchanged until the second lake surrounded by some pedestrian half of last century. Today, it is thought of paths whose walls contain the urns of

VIEW OF THE ENTRANCE TO THE CREMATORIUM (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE RENATO SARNO GROUP)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN Lambrate Cemetery / 1826 / 1980-1988, E. Gianni, R. Sarno (crematorium and expansion) the columbariums. The building housing through a window. The extreme simplicity the crematorium is accessed via both the and rigour in the architectural modulation concrete walkways that run along the lake work together to determine taught and and a staircase, also in reinforced concrete, precise spaces, barren environments but that volumetrically marks one of the two not without a sense of sacredness that only end buildings. an absolute space can give. Within the In the back, a larger ramp allows Lambrate cemetery grounds, there is also an hearses to access the basement of the area allocated for services following Islamic building. Internally the building is divided burial rites. into five levels: the first two levels are FRANCESCO MENEGATTI intended for mortuary operations, the remaining levels are used as offices. The spaces in the basement are double height, (1) containing a hall for religious and civic Group members: Mario Bacciocchi, Luciano Baldessari, Giancarlo De Carlo, Ignazio Gardella, Gianluigi Giordani, Angelo commemorations, and waiting rooms for Mangiarotti, Mario Terzaghi, Pier Italo Trolli, Tito Varisco Bassanesi. relatives of the deceased whose coffin, placed in an air-conditioned room is visible

VIEW OF THE CREMATORIUM BUILDING (PHOTO BY T. BRIGHENTI, G. BONARETTI, S. SALA)

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Ponte Sesto Cemetery in Rozzano / 1989-1995 / Aldo Rossi with Giovanni Da Pozzo, Francesco Saverio Fera

via G. Di Vittorio 10, Rozzano

“Pastoral travels,” is how, in February used, a way of life that might be considered 1989, Aldo Rossi liked to call some of properly Lombard, properly Milanese, made his projects as he recorded them in his of “a few deep things.” A realist adherence “Quaderni Azzurri” (“Blue Notebooks”). A to this character of the people of Lombardy, carefully detailed series of projects stretching along with a desire to build a place for the across Lombardy, the projects touched on city, were the origin of this project that, first the towns of Rozzano, Garbagnate, Seregno of all, is defined by an avenue that connects and Olginate. Like the stations of a Sacred the entrance of the cemetery to a small Mountain, these small works can be seen as church located inside. As often occurs in pieces within a larger, single project speaking Rossi’s work, urban rules become a metaphor about a common identity that expressed, in from which to draw the more general the stratification and the repetition of signs, meaning of the project; the fundamental construction methods and the materials places that form cities are adapted to a wide

ALDO ROSSI, EXPANSION OF THE PONTE SESTO CEMETERY IN ROZZANO, MILANO 1989 STUDY SKETCHES (IMAGE FROM THE FONDAZIONE MAXXI – MUSEO DELLE ARTI DEL XXI SECOLO, ROMA, COURTESY OF THE FONDAZIONE ALDO ROSSI)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN Ponte Sesto Cemetery in Rozzano / 1989-1995 / A. Rossiwith G. Da Pozzo, F. S. Fera variety of uses, in this case to the function on each side, interspersed with lamps, and of a cemetery. A highly select number of marked by a sequence of benches “as it signs have been used in this expansion, should be in the avenues of the city for the which quietly doubled the overall area of living.” No claim to monumentality seems the existing cemetery as it strove to blend to be sought in this project, on the contrary. in with its surroundings: a path—defined The overall composition is defined by its by a sequence of buildings with porticoes accessibility to the people and its intimate, designed for the columbariums that from domestic character with the sole exception of two floors tall become a single storey as two defining places —two central moments they approach the chapel, accentuating — that necessarily take on civil and collective the perspective strength and perception of importance. the path; to point out the flames and two CLAUDIA TINAZZI collective buildings that, in support of the overall design, are positioned to indicate THE FAÇADE OF THE CHAPEL (PHOTO BY STEFANO the focal points recalling the variety of TOPUNTOLI, COURTESY OF THE FONDAZIONE ALDO ROSSI) distinct and different places in cemetery architecture. The Chapel and Crematorium, like characters in a theatrical play, differ from the burial places (both graves and in niches) representing death rituals. The almost perfectly-symmetrical avenue that culminates in the chapel is interrupted along one side to make room for the crematorium, which becomes a filter between the urban feel of the avenue itself and the rural character of the gravesites, enclosed by an old wall in Lombard bricks, a place that in the first design sketches was considered to possibly accommodate a few family chapels. The avenue, therefore, defines the very principle of the project, the compositional idea that supports and compares the construction of the city of the dead to that for the living; partially paved, it is lined by mulberry trees

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New cemetery park in Novate Milanese / 1988-1989 / Adalberto Del Bo, Elisabetta Cozzi with Luca Larosa

via IV Novembre, Novate Milanese

Walking through the new cemetery architecture is tasked with ordering and park designed by Adalberto Del Bo and regulating space, giving the place the Elisabetta Cozzi in Novate Milanese, a character and recognisability that are suburban town north-west of Milan, one requisites for public urban places. In this immediately senses the influence of Nordic case, the architecture consists of a series and Anglo-Saxon cemetery design—Gunnar of walls—in exposed-brick, respecting the Asplund’s work in Stockholm is a clear tradition in Lombardy—placed parallel to and explicit point of reference—as well as the cemetery’s main access road at just the the desire to build a “city of the dead” as a right intervals to identify and express the part of the city itself, a direct relationship succession of the individual burial sites. with nature and the landscape in which Each sector consists of two perimeter

VIEW FROM THE WEST OF THE INTERNAL AVENUE (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE DEL BO STUDIO)

CEMETERIES IN MILAN New cemetery park in Novate Milanese / 1988-1989 / A. Del Bo, E. Cozzi with L. Larosa walls for the ossuaries and two shorter, entrance, in correspondence to the project’s central walls, whose role is to create the third building, used as a mortuary, to two place for gravesites. These are designed as twin structures framing the main entrance. a succession of uniform-size brick niches In this way, a cold, unheated atrium has whose primary role to witness, without been constructed that overlooks the main distinction, the presence of the tombs, in road and the landscape to the north and Adolf Loos’ definition of the mounds of is separated from the burial grounds by earth indicating a person’s final resting dividing walls with niches containing stone place . At the same time, they also provide benches, covered by a roof, overlooking the necessary freedom for ornamenting small, verdant courtyards connected to each burial place. each other by a flower-covered pergola. As Two paths, perpendicular to the happens in the “city of the living”, so too dividing walls, define the short sides of for the “city of the dead”: it is through the each sector and at the same time constitute relationship between the individual parts the main axes in the composition of the of the composition that the generality of entire site plan. The first, hierarchically the theme is constructed around the place’s more important, is identified by the tree- unique qualities. lined avenue that connects the pedestrian TOMASO MONESTIROLI entrance on the north side, featuring two identical buildings—the mortuary and offices for security guards, constructed SITE PLAN (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE DEL BO STUDIO) entirely in ‘Ceppo’, a traditional stone used locally in Lombardy—with a memorial building, also in Ceppo, located to the south, in the midst of greenery. This same path is furthermore tasked with separating the east, planned for an urban park, from the west, used for burials. The second path, west of the tree-lined avenue, cuts perpendicularly across the entire burial grounds, separating them into uniform, properly-dimensioned sectors. A third path, perpendicular to the second and parallel to the access road, connects the automobile

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