People all over the world are dying to get in to cemeteries, to graves, to mausoleums. Their bones are buried, their ashes encased, their lives summarised in the dash between two dates. Their epitaphs, their choice of grave marker, their obituary, all tell a story. Cemeteries are museums of life often overlooked, frequently ignored. When I travel, I travel to meet the living and to pay my respects to the dead. These are my stories.
A roadside plaque caught my eye as we drove back from the southernmost tip of Croatia to Dubrovnik airport. I had to stop. ChatGPT tells me it translates as “LEST…
Partizansko groblje u Mostaru (Partisan Memorial Cemetery in Mostar) is a tad surreal. Under the direction of architect Bogdan Bogdanović, work began on the necropolis in 1959 to commemorate Yugoslav…
Since visiting Sarajevo back in 2015, Mostar has been on my list of cities to visit. There are some 114 cemeteries listed in the area. Not surprising, really, given the…
There’s a cemetery in Msida, Malta that looks out across the water where the locals serve strawberries and cream in the summer. It has topped my list of best views…
Having climbed Apparition Hill at dawn, we were heading back into town when I spotted this cemetery. Drawn to it for some reason, we stopped. It wasn’t the statuary –…
At the end of the much-touted (and somewhat overrated) Tram 28 in Lisbon, sits Cemitério dos Prazeres. Founded in 1833 after an outbreak of cholera, the cemetery is all about…
Tucked behind an old gated wall lies the local cemetery in Bibinje, one of Croatia’s best-kept secrets. According to the 2011 census, the town is home to fewer than 4,000…
On our way to Vila Praia de Âncora, we happened upon Igreja de São Martinho (St Martin’s Church), with its wonderful tile depiction of the iconic moment when St Martin…
In Puducherry (Pondicherry) in January, the top of my list of places to visit was the old French cemetery. We had a difficult time finding it. No one we asked…
High on my list when visiting Fort Kochi, was to pay my respects at the old Dutch Cemetery. It dates to 1724 and is one of the country’s oldest European…
