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| The Pyramid and Porta San Paolo: view from the cemetery antico. |
Una passeggiata al cimitero acattolico di Roma di Massimo Sestili
La Storia
Il «Cimitero dei protestanti» o «Cimitero acattolico», conosciuto anche con il nome suggestivo di «Cimitero degli artisti e dei poeti», è un luogo di una straordinaria e monumentale bellezza, unico al mondo, che si estende su uno spazio di appena due ettari e accoglie circa quattromila tombe di cittadini di ogni nazionalità: vi è sepolta una umanità varia di viaggiatori, poeti, artisti e diplomatici. A ben guardare i nomi delle persone qui sepolte, there is no doubt that we are dealing with an elite group of heretics. A coat of arms found on a casket in 1930, traced back to one of the first burials at the foot of the Pyramid: This is a student at Oxford, George Langton, who died in 1738 at the age of 21. However, the cemetery was officially founded on 11 October 1821 to give a decent burial to the foreign-Protestant or schismatic greek living in Rome, although over the years has been the favorite formula of broader non-Catholic citizens.
The cemetery area extends from the Pyramid of Caius Cestius, built into the Aurelian walls and Porta San Paolo (Porta Ostiensis old), and the Testaccio district. An inscription records that Cestius He was the son of Lucius, of the tribe Poblilia, praetor, tribune of the people, the settemviro epuloni, that is the one who organized the banquet for the gods. Built between 18 and 12 BC, the Pyramid was built in the third century Aurelian Walls and the Gates Ostiensis, to form a single defensive system of the city. In a trench dug between the ancient Aurelian Walls and the cemetery is visible on the pavement of the Via Ostiense, which was directed to the port of Rome. The Monte Testaccio Testaccio or which extends between the Aurelian Walls and the Tiber, derives its name from Mons testaceus, or upstream of the pieces, because it is a small artificial hill that has formed over the centuries by the discharge of the amphorae from port of Ostia.
Before the current air force was made legally available and protected by a fence wall, most likely the citizens of non-Catholic denomination were buried in one of those places "privileged" suitable for the renegades, those convicted and unrepentant heretics; a place that was located in Rome over the Porta Flaminia, the Muro Torto, where they were buried mostly prostitutes, and it is estimated that in 1700 was around 500. The most "lucky" were transferred to the Protestant cemetery in Livorno. If Protestants were treated like lepers and plague victims, so that the Roman populace, when he perceived a Protestant funeral, he used to cry "To the river! Al fiume!», alludendo al vicino Tevere, anche agli ebrei non toccava una sorte migliore. Il cimitero degli ebrei si trovava sull’Aventino e veniva chiamato con disprezzo «ortaccio degli ebrei». Malgrado la riluttanza della chiesa cattolica, il problema di riservare un’area per la sepoltura degli eretici si fece sempre più pressante nel periodo del «Grand Tour», quando gli stranieri di estrazione sociale elevata che si recavano a Roma era notevolmente aumentata e non potevano essere sepolti con prostitute e suicidi. La zona del Monte Testaccio con i prati limitrofi tra il Settecento e l’Ottocento faceva parte dell’agro romano ed era conosciuta come «i prati del popolo romano». Un territorio di bivacchi e feste night where prostitutes entertained the populace. About Stevens wrote in English: "The foot tramples this common place where they are buried, which clearly shows the respect we have for heretics."
According to church laws then in force, no non-Catholic could be buried in the "blessed land", so the bodies were buried in secret at night and not to arouse the ire of the populace and the invective that often engulfed in art, passed from words to deeds with vile attacks.
the lawn without walls and trees, in the shadow of the pyramid, the first tombs buried by torchlight, the sheep were grazing. Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus! For these souls, there was no chance of salvation. Now the main entrance gate stands the inscription Resurrecturis.
The cemetery area extends from the Pyramid of Caius Cestius, built into the Aurelian walls and Porta San Paolo (Porta Ostiensis old), and the Testaccio district. An inscription records that Cestius He was the son of Lucius, of the tribe Poblilia, praetor, tribune of the people, the settemviro epuloni, that is the one who organized the banquet for the gods. Built between 18 and 12 BC, the Pyramid was built in the third century Aurelian Walls and the Gates Ostiensis, to form a single defensive system of the city. In a trench dug between the ancient Aurelian Walls and the cemetery is visible on the pavement of the Via Ostiense, which was directed to the port of Rome. The Monte Testaccio Testaccio or which extends between the Aurelian Walls and the Tiber, derives its name from Mons testaceus, or upstream of the pieces, because it is a small artificial hill that has formed over the centuries by the discharge of the amphorae from port of Ostia.
Before the current air force was made legally available and protected by a fence wall, most likely the citizens of non-Catholic denomination were buried in one of those places "privileged" suitable for the renegades, those convicted and unrepentant heretics; a place that was located in Rome over the Porta Flaminia, the Muro Torto, where they were buried mostly prostitutes, and it is estimated that in 1700 was around 500. The most "lucky" were transferred to the Protestant cemetery in Livorno. If Protestants were treated like lepers and plague victims, so that the Roman populace, when he perceived a Protestant funeral, he used to cry "To the river! Al fiume!», alludendo al vicino Tevere, anche agli ebrei non toccava una sorte migliore. Il cimitero degli ebrei si trovava sull’Aventino e veniva chiamato con disprezzo «ortaccio degli ebrei». Malgrado la riluttanza della chiesa cattolica, il problema di riservare un’area per la sepoltura degli eretici si fece sempre più pressante nel periodo del «Grand Tour», quando gli stranieri di estrazione sociale elevata che si recavano a Roma era notevolmente aumentata e non potevano essere sepolti con prostitute e suicidi. La zona del Monte Testaccio con i prati limitrofi tra il Settecento e l’Ottocento faceva parte dell’agro romano ed era conosciuta come «i prati del popolo romano». Un territorio di bivacchi e feste night where prostitutes entertained the populace. About Stevens wrote in English: "The foot tramples this common place where they are buried, which clearly shows the respect we have for heretics."
According to church laws then in force, no non-Catholic could be buried in the "blessed land", so the bodies were buried in secret at night and not to arouse the ire of the populace and the invective that often engulfed in art, passed from words to deeds with vile attacks.
the lawn without walls and trees, in the shadow of the pyramid, the first tombs buried by torchlight, the sheep were grazing. Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus! For these souls, there was no chance of salvation. Now the main entrance gate stands the inscription Resurrecturis.
Among the graves ...
Along the boulevards shaded by cypress trees that separate the three areas of the cemetery, intoxicated by the colors and the scent of flowers, immediately perceive that in this place the memory is non-invasive and oppressive, the past evokes thoughts and memories that unfold in a thread that holds together East and West, North and South, Orthodox Jews, Protestants and atheists. Following the thread of a story often made of intolerance and conflict, gradually immerse myself in the sinking of a sweet memory that finds a foothold in the lightness the epitaph of the tomb of John Keats (1795-1821):
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| Tomb of John Keats |
Here lies One Whose Name Was Writ in Water
( Here lies one whose name was writ in water).
( Here lies one whose name was writ in water).
love with the absolute beauty and become removed from the ephemeral existence, Keats his verses carved on the water
Beauty is truth. Truth is beauty.
Sweets hear the tunes: you hear the sweetest.
Sweets hear the tunes: you hear the sweetest.
Full of anxiety, he sensed the beauty, grace and harmony that he saw the man lying away or rather convinced and marked by deceit, and beauty sought the ideal home. Keats who, hearing the now near death, sent Severn to visit the place of his burial, and the description given by his friend, said he seemed already to feel the flowers growing on it. On his grave surrounded by grass and flowers, I think his dream has been fulfilled and that is listening:
Fu vision or waking dream?
off those notes are now: - I sleep or play?
off those notes are now: - I sleep or play?
visions and dreams that haunt the grave of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822): hobo, anarchist, revolutionary, rebellious, visionary, dreamer thirsty for the infinite, who left the narrow-minded England for Italy, where he died engulfed by a storm in the Gulf of La Spezia.
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| Tomb Shelley |
Cado / over the thorns of life and bleed.
A storm early in his Ode to the west wind, which already seems to contain his epitaph: a heart in the storm, as clearly appears tombstone inscription, Cor Cordium, heart of hearts, followed by three verses of the song of Ariel from the Tempest Shakespeare: Nothing
of HIM That doth fade, Buth doth Suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange.
is the storm of Adonais, written in memory of John Keats, but also its existential storm will cost the expulsion from school for writing a pamphlet on The Necessity of Atheism. Shelley wrote that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of mankind: the constant drive to feel part of the infinite, they are aware of the powerful energy of life pulsing cosmic feel inside themselves.
Shelley, Marx wrote that was a precursor of socialism, and a drizzle s'addipana towards the tomb of Gramsci.
Shelley, Marx wrote that was a precursor of socialism, and a drizzle s'addipana towards the tomb of Gramsci.
front of the tomb of Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), founder of the Communist Party of Italy, who died in fascist prisons in a tragic solitude, comes the echo of civil passion of Pier Paolo Pasolini and his love for Rome:
Superb and miserable city,
you taught me that gay men and ferocious
children learn.
[...]
Stupendous, miserable city that you made me do
experiences that life
unknown allowed me to discover what
, was for everyone the world.
you taught me that gay men and ferocious
children learn.
[...]
Stupendous, miserable city that you made me do
experiences that life
unknown allowed me to discover what
, was for everyone the world.
On this tomb, the firefly, besieged by a deep darkness and despair felt by rinnovata e angosciata passione a riprendere il volo con parole che sanno d’amore e di senso profondo della storia:
Ma io, con il cuore cosciente
di chi soltanto nella storia ha vita,
potrò mai più con pura passione operare,
se so che la nostra storia è finita?
di chi soltanto nella storia ha vita,
potrò mai più con pura passione operare,
se so che la nostra storia è finita?
Pasolini, avvolto nella miseria delle periferie romane, dagli ingenui e feroci sorrisi dei ragazzi di vita, da un’umanità di una povertà indicibile che ancora invoca nella sua inguaribile innocenza il Signore. Una invocazione che ritrovo sulla tomba del romantico svedese Harald Jacobsson: Non pronunciare mai il nome di Gesù invano.
In questo cimitero, definito da Oscar Wilde il posto più sacro di Roma, riposa Gregory Corso, il poeta della beat generation che prima di morire espresse il desiderio di venire sepolto accanto a Shelley. Come Pasolini amava la disperata innocenza degli esclusi: Uscii di prigione amando i miei simili perché tutti quelli che incontrai là dentro erano fieri e tristi e belli e perduti, perduti…
In questo luogo di pensiero abbellito dalla creatività dell’uomo, per sua espressa volontà è sepolto Carlo Emilio Gadda (1893-1973). I versi per l’epigrafe della sua tomba sono stati scritti dal poeta Mario Luzi:
In questo cimitero, definito da Oscar Wilde il posto più sacro di Roma, riposa Gregory Corso, il poeta della beat generation che prima di morire espresse il desiderio di venire sepolto accanto a Shelley. Come Pasolini amava la disperata innocenza degli esclusi: Uscii di prigione amando i miei simili perché tutti quelli che incontrai là dentro erano fieri e tristi e belli e perduti, perduti…
In questo luogo di pensiero abbellito dalla creatività dell’uomo, per sua espressa volontà è sepolto Carlo Emilio Gadda (1893-1973). I versi per l’epigrafe della sua tomba sono stati scritti dal poeta Mario Luzi:
Qui nel cuore antico e sempre vivo di sogni e d’utopie, Roma dà asilo alle spoglie di Carlo Emilio Gadda geniale studioso artista dalle forti passioni morali e civili signore della prosa.
Gadda è stato trasferito nel cimitero acattolico, dopo non poche polemiche, il 2 novembre 2000; sia l’allora sindaco Francesco Rutelli, che l’assessore alla cultura Gianni Borgna, si sono nobilmente adoperati per rispettare la volontà di uno scrittore che, come Pasolini, aveva scelto di vivere e morire a Roma.
Goethe, in visita a Roma nel 1778, affascinato dalla bellezza della Piramide, immaginò la sua tomba circondata di cipressi e rischiarata dalla luna: il figlio August lo precederà e la sua tomba è situata tra due magnifici cipressi a ridosso delle mura Aureliane.
Here, along with Dario Bellezza (1944-1996), Pasolini defined by the best poet of the new generation, an icon of the gay movement in the capital, lie the poet Amelia Rosselli (1930-1996), writer Luce D'Eramo (1925-2001 ), the intellectual Argentine Juan Rodolfo Wilcock, physicist Bruno Pontecorvo, the philosopher Antonio Labriola, together with the Russian Prince Yusupov, father of the assassination of Rasputin.
In this small hill and green suit, the wind whispers silent mysteries of the universe, a harmony is still possible, a joy that is life and art can only understand. Among these tombs is the eternal sound nothing permeates the lightness of a flower:
Goethe, in visita a Roma nel 1778, affascinato dalla bellezza della Piramide, immaginò la sua tomba circondata di cipressi e rischiarata dalla luna: il figlio August lo precederà e la sua tomba è situata tra due magnifici cipressi a ridosso delle mura Aureliane.
Here, along with Dario Bellezza (1944-1996), Pasolini defined by the best poet of the new generation, an icon of the gay movement in the capital, lie the poet Amelia Rosselli (1930-1996), writer Luce D'Eramo (1925-2001 ), the intellectual Argentine Juan Rodolfo Wilcock, physicist Bruno Pontecorvo, the philosopher Antonio Labriola, together with the Russian Prince Yusupov, father of the assassination of Rasputin.
In this small hill and green suit, the wind whispers silent mysteries of the universe, a harmony is still possible, a joy that is life and art can only understand. Among these tombs is the eternal sound nothing permeates the lightness of a flower:
forever caught between a flower and the other won
the inexpressible nothing.
And among the flowers keep on walking accompanied by the poetry of Ungaretti taking consistency in front of the rose bushes that adorn the tombs:
Death, dumb word
hear you sing like a cicada
rose in the darkened reflexes.
hear you sing like a cicada
rose in the darkened reflexes.
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| Angelo pain-Tomb Story |
Photos and Text by Massimo Sestili, July 2006
Published in the journal Fuaié n. 21 settembre 2006 e in versione leggermente diversa su Stilos Anno VII n. 15 18 luglio 2006
Cimitero Acattolico del Testaccio
Via Caio Cestio 6, 00153 Roma
Tel. 06-5741900 – Fax 06-5741141
