AtTheCemetery by wmoritzer

Cemitério dos Prazeres... This remarkable cemetery is really an interesting place to visit. Famous Portuguese personalities are buried here, mainly actors, singers, writers, painters and television presenters. After the city of Lisbon was hit by an outbreak of cholera in 1833, causing thousands of deaths, it was urgent to create a large cemetery for both rich and poorer victims. It has the weird name of Cemetery of ‘Pleasures’, called after the nearby neighborhood (Prazeres) with the same name. Many of its tombs are big mausoleums, some with the size of small chapels. Most of the Prazeres mausoleums belong to rich, old or ‘important’ families, like f.i. the Palmela family. Many of the mausoleums are richly elaborated, have fine sculptures and decorations. There are also statues of the deceased. It’s like a ‘city in a city’ for the dead, with well-defined lanes (70! ) and funerary chapels that were built to look like little houses. The unusual about a lot of these graves is that they have little “front doors” with glass windows through which you can see the caskets and remnants of the dead and their visitors. via 500px http://j.mp/1rHg45q