The cemetery of San Michele is located on the island of the same name in the Venetian lagoon, located between Venice and Murano.
San Michele actually housed the cemetery only from 1837 when the
narrow canal that distinguished the two islets of San Michele and San
Cristoforo della Pace was filled up in order to expand the extension of
the cemetery which, from 1807 at the behest of Napoleon, stood on this
'last. Previously burials were carried out in churchyards or inside
churches and, when these filled up, the remains were transferred to the
islands of the lagoon (especially the ossuary of Sant'Ariano). The
custom of clearing cemeteries in this way was maintained until the 19th
century.
Starting from February 1806, the need for a single
burial place outside the lagoon city became urgent: a solution had to be
identified, to be fixed on one of the islands in the lagoon or on the
mainland, so as to remove possible causes of contagion from the city .
At first, the area occupied by the Clarisse Monastery of Santa Maria
Maggiore was identified, in the Santa Croce district. The architect
Giuseppe Picotti imagines a necropolis surrounded by arcades, capable of
hosting 660 tombs, destined for sale but the project is too expensive
and is not carried out. The following projects take into consideration
the island of Sant'Andrea della Certosa, without however reaching a
concrete realization. It was Napoleon in 1807, at the end of a stay in
the city, who identified the solution to the problem, indicating the
island of San Cristoforo, located between Venice and Murano. The
following year the island was evacuated, the assignment was given to
Giannantonio Selva, who started the works. In May 1813 the construction
was completed and on 28 June the chapel and the cemetery were blessed,
entrusted to the care of the Augustinian Friars. However, the new
cemetery met with little enthusiasm. Soon becoming insufficient, it also
became necessary to use the nearby island of San Michele as a cemetery,
which houses an important Camaldolese monastery. In 1810, by Napoleonic
decree, the monastery was suppressed and the island remained the
property of the State, which sold it to the Municipality to be united
with San Cristoforo, under the care of the Franciscan friars. In 1826
the first inhumations began in San Michele, while from 1835 the works of
burying the narrow canal that divided the two islets began, works which
ended in 1839. Once unified, the cemetery took the name of San Michele.
In 1843 a competition for the stylistic unification of the complex was
announced. Vince Lorenzo Urbani but the project did not follow due to
the economic hardships facing the lagoon city. In 1858 a new competition
was then announced, won by Annibale Forcellini, which was only partially
realized and with some modifications starting from 1870-71.
In
1998, S. Michele was the subject of a competition for an extension,
which was won by the architect David Chipperfield.
Depending on the religious denomination, the cemetery is divided into
Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical areas. The Jewish cemetery of Venice,
however, is located on the island of Lido. The military shrine of Venice
is the Votive Temple of the Lido.
The entrance hemicycle 22
(enclosure XI) to the nineteenth-century historical monumental cemetery
is made up of 38 aedicules, which include various private noble chapels
belonging to noble families: Salviati (Roman branch), Testolini Quadri,
Azzano, Venier and Olivieri.
Thanks to a floating bridge, from 31
October to 10 November 2019, it was possible to walk to the Memorial
Cemetery.
Illustrious personalities buried
Among the famous
people, here rest:
A
Domenico Agostini (1825 - 1891), cardinal
and Catholic patriarch
Gino Allegri (1893 - 1918), soldier and
aviator
B
Luisa Baccara (1892 - 1985), pianist
Franco Basaglia
(1924 - 1980), psychiatrist, neurologist and teacher
Cesco Baseggio
(1897 - 1971), actor
Giuseppe Bertoja (1803 - 1911), set designer and
entrepreneur
Pietro Bertoja (1828 - 1911), set designer and
photographer.
Italico Brass (1870 - 1943), painter, set designer and
collector
Iosif Alexandrovich Brodsky (1940 - 1996), Russian poet,
essayist and playwright
Horatio Brown (1854-1926), British historian
Antonio Buzzolla (1815-1871), composer
C
Guido Cadorin (1892 -
1976), painter
Roberto Calasso (1941 - 2021), writer and editor
Marco Antonio Canini (1822-1891), philologist and patriot
Felice
Carena (1879 - 1966), painter
Francesco Carnelutti (1879 - 1965),
lawyer, jurist and academic
Luigi Carrer (1801-1850), journalist and
poet
Emma Ciardi (1878-1933). painter
Ashley Clarke (1903 - 1994),
diplomat
Ernani Costantini (1922-2007), painter and writer
D
Antonio Dal Zotto (1841 - 1918), sculptor
Sergei Diaghilev (1872 -
1929), Russian theater impresario
Giovanni Dolfin (1545 - 1622),
politician and cardinal
Christian Doppler (1803 - 1853), Austrian
mathematician and physicist
F
Giacomo Favretto (1849 - 1887),
painter
Carl Filtsh (1830 - 1845), pianist and composer
Antonio
Fradeletto (1858 - 1930), politician
Pietro Fragiacomo (1856 - 1922),
painter
Sergio Franzoi (1929 - 2022), Italian painter and academic
G
Giacinto Gallina (1852 - 1897), playwright
Gasparo Gozzi (1713 -
1786), scholar, journalist and intellectual
Carlo Gozzi (1713 -
1800), playwright and writer
Léon Gischia (1903 - 1991), French
painter
Virgilio Guidi (1891 - 1984), painter, poet and essayist
H
Helenio Herrera (1910 - 1997), Argentine football manager and soccer
player
J
Giuseppe Jappelli (1783 - 1852), engineer, architect and
landscaper
L
Piero Leonardi (1908 - 1998), geologist and
paleontologist
Egon Lerch (1886 - 1915), Austro-Hungarian military.
Giulio Lorenzetti (1885 - 1951), writer and art critic
M
Lauretta
Masiero (1927 - 2010), actress
Pompeo Gherardo Molmenti (1852 -
1928), writer, historian and politician
Pompeo Marino Molmenti
(1819-1894), painter
Zoran Mušič (1909 - 2005), Slovenian painter and
engraver
N
Luigi Nono (1924 - 1990), composer and writer
P
Nicolò Pasqualigo (1770 - 1832), admiral
Pier Luigi Penzo (1896 -
1928), aviator and soldier
Armando Pizzinato (1910 - 2004), painter
Alessandro Poerio (1802 - 1848), patriot and poet
Ezra Pound (1885 -
1972), American poet, essayist and translator
Q
Giovanni Querini
Stampalia (1799 - 1869), entrepreneur and philanthropist
R
Giovanni Ravelli (1887 - 1919), motorcyclist and aviator
Justina
Renier Michiel (1755 - 1832), writer
Martín Rico y Ortega (1833 -
1908), Spanish painter
Louis Léopold Robert (1794 - 1835), Swiss
painter
Frederick Rolfe (1860 - 1913), writer and photographer
Olga Rudge (1895 - 1996), American violinist
S
Paolo Sarpi (1552 -
1623), religious, theologian, historian and scientist
Natale
Schiavoni (1777 - 1858), painter and engraver
Riccardo Selvatico
(1849 - 1901), playwright, poet and politician
Igor' Fyodorovich
Stravinsky (1882 - 1971), Russian composer and conductor
V
Emilio
Vedova (1919 - 2006), painter, engraver and partisan
Frans Vervloet
(1795-1872), Belgian painter
Cesarina Vighy (1936 - 2010), writer
W
Franz Wickhoff (1853-1909), Austrian art historian
Ermanno
Wolf-Ferrari (1876 - 1948), composer
Teodoro Wolf Ferrari (1878 -
1945), painter
Z
Emilio Zago (1852 - 1929), theater actor
Luigi
Zandomeneghi (1778 - 1850), sculptor
Gennadios Zervos (1937-2020),
Greek Orthodox archbishop