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Immortelle · **Graveyards -** 02-20-02

I wasn't sure where to post this but since more then one goth i know is fascinated by it, i thought why not post it here.

I have always been interested in cemeteries. Maybe an obscure interest but it just fascinates me. This place where you end when you’ve walked through the last door of life. This place where I and so many others find solitude, find some peace from crazy city life. I must say that sometimes you cannot even be alone on a graveyard. Very annoying. I need to be alone a lot and you can do that best in the woods or at these dark places full of beauty.
I love to walk and sit down and think, contemplate about all kinds of things. It’s often very serene and if there are people around they won’t disturb you thinking that you are visiting your loved one. I haven’t encountered much death in my life yet but I’m afraid that in the future I will visit these places for other reasons too.

Most cemeteries have a wide selection of different sorts of graves. Everyone can probably find a tombstone that fascinates him or her. Behind every stone there is a story. It’s almost a
challenge to discover who is buried there. What is the story. How did this person die.
On some graves you can find beautiful epitaphs. Some of the texts on graves are very common but there are beautiful ones too. It’s always nice to look for poems and other
things that people have felt the need to put on a tombstone.
The way graves are designed is also from very boring to amazingly beautiful. I once saw a grave, well actually it seems to have been two graves, next to eachother. There was a wall in between that separated them and on top you could see 2 hands holding eachother. This symbolized the fact that these two persons could not be together in life. In death they can be one. Death can even be romantic in a way. If I remember correctly then these 2 persons belonged to a different faith. They were not allowed to marry. This is the kind of grave that makes you want to visit more and more burial grounds.

There are plenty of official cemeteries but there are also little, hidden ones. These small, obscure ones are also interesting enough to take a look at. Usually you walk into one or you have to know about them. There is a lot of information on the internet about this subject. I’ll give a few urls at the end of this post.

At times you find graves of famous people. On Père Lachaise in Paris you can find the graves of Oscar Wilde, he converted to Catholicism in the last years of his life, composer Chopin, Gustav Dore and Jim Morrison.
Does anyone know of more famous people on cemeteries? And where? Tell me what do you think is so special about their graves?

And tell me are you fascinated by these places in any way? And why?

For those who are interested in the beautiful side of death surf to these sites:

All kinds of information about cemeteries: http://www.alsirat.com/silence/index.html

Pictures of Russian graveyards: http://www.gothic.ru/cemetery/index2_e.htm

Again pictures but this time of all kinds of burial grounds all over the world: http://www.serve.com/diavolo/grave

Pierced by a bullet of spleen...