Cemetery of Poggioreale
The Cemetery of Poggioreale is one of the major cemeteries in Naples, Italy. It is also known as Camposanto Nuovo, to distinguish it from Camposanto Vecchio, which is now known as Cemetery of the 366 Fossae. It is delimited by the Largo Santa Maria del Pianto, Via del Riposo, Via Santa Maria del Pianto, and via nuova Poggioreale, and is built upon the ruins of Alphonso II's Villa Poggio Reale.
History
Until the 18th century most funeral monuments were located inside churches, closer to the divine air, and where they could either buy a generation of prayer, or at least be entombed within earshot of genuflecting masses, so as to be lifted into heaven by their overhead chants. As churches became crowded with tombs, this open air monumental cemetery allowed noble families to build private chapels and crypts in a slightly more secular location, on the southern side of the hill of Poggioreale. The cemetery was begun during the Napoleonic occupation, and remodelled in 1836-1837.
The layout is that of a garden. At the upper end is a Neoclassic church with a Pieta by Gennaro Cali, in its tribune; and behind a large oblong square, surrounded by a portico of fluted Doric columns, out of which open 102 proprietary chapels, beneath each of which are the family vaults of the owners. The colossal, nondenominational figure of Religion in the centre of the quadrangle is by Tito Angelini. Most of the vaults are occupied by subscription to confraternities, or burial clubs.
Those who cannot afford to pay for their own graves are interred without coffins in another part of the grounds, as in the "Cemetery of the 366 Fossae"; but as the fee is small, not more than half-a-dozen bodies are deposited during the three days each pit remains open. At the southwest extremity is a space set aside for notable Neapolitans: a Quadrato degli uomini illustri (Quadrangle for illustrious men). Also adjacent are 19th-century Protestant and Jewish cemeteries of Naples.
