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The creation of the Monumental Cemetery had a long and troubled development, starting in 1837 at the request of the Austrian administration of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. Several projects were presented over more than twenty years, until, with the liberation from Austria, the new Municipality of Milan decided in May 1860 to suspend all work and issue a new competition. Twenty-one projects were submitted, including the one by Carlo Maciachini, which was chosen at the council meeting on July 10, 1863.
Carlo Maciachini (1818-1899), until then an almost unknown architect, envisioned, alongside the grand main entrance dedicated to Catholics, a section dedicated to non-Catholic Christians (Protestants, Muslims, and free thinkers) on the left and a section for Israelites on the right, reflecting their influence in the economic, political, and civil life.
According to the 1914 guide by the Touring Club Italiano, the Monumental Cemetery is “an index of the apparent wealth of the people of Milan,” but we could also add the Jews. Contemporary observers described it as “modern Lombard style,” in line with the eclectic architecture of the late 19th century. The cemetery’s facade stretches longitudinally around the imposing Famedio, from which the lateral porticoed wings extend, ending in polygonal niches. From these, the upper and lower galleries of the west and east connect, delimiting the sections for non-Catholics on the left and the areas dedicated to the Israelites on the right.
Maciachini carefully selected materials from all over Italy for the cemetery: the thresholds, steps, and plinths are made of white granite; the pillars and small columns are in red granite worked with a hammer; the crowning frames of the columbaria are in delicate quarried stone; the columbarium roofs are in beola stone; the plinths of the columbarium bases are in black Ascona stone; the curbstones are in Sarnico stone; and the perimeter plinths are in serizzo stone, while the bases of the pillars are in Valcamonica stone.
The Jewish Section, designed in detail between 1870 and 1871 and costing £57,568.12 according to documentation preserved at the Milan Historical Archive, originally featured an independent entrance that allowed access to three large common fields, separated by narrow paths leading to smaller areas for private burials. The section was later expanded south and east of the original fields 1, 2, and 3, where the oldest graves are located, with the creation of fields 4, 5, and 6, as well as the so-called “expansion,” due to numerous burial requests. This way, in an almost perfect square, the cemetery reached approximately 5000 square meters. The entrance was moved further south, and the high perimeter wall was moved further east, while numerous chapels, columbaria, and ossuaries were added along the walls leading to the rest of the cemetery.
The three common fields have small gravestones with the name of the deceased. The central field is reserved for children, while the two lateral fields are for adults, with burial dates ranging from 1873 to 1894. After that date, deceased Jews were buried in the Musocco Cemetery, in field 8.
The pavilion at the center of the cemetery was originally the entrance to the section and is symmetrical to the similar one for non-Catholics. The temple has three arcades with polygonal side apses, rounded arches, and pillars with corner columns decorated with capitals. At the top of the facade are the Tablets of Moses with the commandments, made of Rezzato stone.
In 2014, the Sabbadini Eskenazi family sponsored the entire restoration of the pavilion under the direction of architect Monteverdi and artistic direction by Diego Penacchio Ardemagni. Ardemagni was tasked with creating the stained glass windows inspired by and freely interpreting the twelve stained glass windows that depict the twelve tribes of Israel, created by Marc Chagall in the synagogue of the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. The technique used is the same as that of Chagall’s work: blown glass, plated and engraved, painted at high temperatures, created by the Lambert Workshops of Frankfurt. These windows depict flowers, fish, birds, and stars on stylized landscapes, along with a series of typically Jewish symbols, such as a seven-branched candelabrum (menorah) and the Tablets of the Law. At the top, the names of the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel mentioned in the Torah are featured.
The pavilion is used for burial ceremonies with prayers by the rabbi. The building, which hosts numerous graves on the side walls, contains a fine rabbinical seat made of wood covered with bronze, featuring Hebrew inscriptions and decorations, created by sculptor Mario Quadrelli at the end of the 19th century, originating from the Pisa chapel. Among those buried in the pavilion is composer Aldo Finzi (Milan 1897-Turin 1945), who composed operas, chamber music, and symphonic music between the two World Wars.
Among the numerous chapels, the neo-Gothic one dedicated to Leon David Levi, a banker and moneychanger from Mantua, stands out in the center of the northern side, though it has long been abandoned. It is the work of architect Ercole Balossi Merlo, who, through pointed arches and pinnacles, emphasized the verticality of the structure. Of particular architectural importance is the chapel commissioned by Ugo Pisa, a Garibaldian, banker, senator, and philanthropist, designed by Carlo Maciachini, the same architect of the Monumental Cemetery. The chapel, which hints at vaguely Middle Eastern influences, is marked by a large rose window. Also noteworthy is the chapel of the Goldfinger family, designed by architect Luigi Perrone. The door, sculpted by the famous architect Giannino Castiglioni, is particularly beautiful, with a pomegranate tree symbolizing Jewish tradition, where the many seeds of the fruit represent abundance and fertility.
Finally, among the many monuments worth mentioning, we must remember the beautiful chapel of the Treves family from 1906, created by sculptor Ettore Ximenes in Carrara marble with a bronze high-relief band. It depicts moments from the life of publisher Emilio Treves and his brother Giuseppe with his wife and writer Virginia Tedeschi (Cordelia), surrounded on one side by writer friends, including Gabriele D’Annunzio, Edmondo De Amicis, and Giovanni Verga, and on the other, by workers from the printing press engaged in the modern process of photomechanical reproduction and printing illustrations, a technique that represented the success of the publishing house.
Among the monuments not to be overlooked are the Monument to Cesare Sarfatti, the famous lawyer and penalist, once a socialist and later a follower of Mussolini, president of Cariplo from 1923 to 1924, and husband of Margherita Grassini Sarfatti, Mussolini’s lover; the Monument to Luisa Estella Jung, a young girl who died at the age of four, portrayed with vivid realism; and the Monument to the Jewish Martyrs of Nazism, erected by the Jewish Community of Milan in 1947. This monument features a large seven-branched menorah in gray marble, and it contains the remains of twelve victims brutally killed, commemorated in an annual ceremony. (1)
[1] Lalla Fumagalli e Carla De Bernardi (a cura) “Un Museo a celo aperto. Il Cimitero Monumentale di Milano” 2013;