Cimitero Monumentale del Verano (Piazzale del Verano, Rome, adjacent to the Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura in the San Lorenzo neighborhood, accessible by tram 19 or bus 71 from the historic center): the Rome municipal monumental cemetery established in 1835 on the site of the ancient Ad Catacumbas Laurentii (the cemetery area that had been in use since the 2nd century AD as the burial ground adjacent to the San Lorenzo basilica), the most extensive collection of 19th and early 20th century Italian funerary sculpture outside Milan's Cimitero Monumentale, and the most systematically overlooked art destination in Rome.
The Verano funerary sculpture: the specific monumental funerary sculpture of the Italian 19th century (the marble figure groups, the portrait busts, the allegories of grief and resurrection, and the specific architectural tombs (the neo-Gothic, the neo-Renaissance, the Art Nouveau sepulchre structures) that the Italian middle and upper classes commissioned from the sculptors of the post-Unification period) reaches its most concentrated and most architecturally varied expression in the Verano: the specific names of the sculptors represented (the Romans Ettore Ferrari, Enrico Chiaradia, and Eugenio Maccagnani. The Lombard Bistolfi. And the many studio sculptors whose work the funerary tradition generated in quantity from 1860 to 1930) constitute the primary documentary record of the Italian funerary sculpture tradition between the end of Canova and the beginning of the 20th-century modernism.
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Cimitero del Verano: Sculpture Circuit and Famous Burials
The Sculpture Circuit
Verano funerary sculpture walk (the self-guided circuit of the primary funerary sculpture monuments, the Verano has no official guided tour program but the cemetery administration has produced a map of the principal monuments (available at the cemetery entrance office) that covers the most significant 50-60 sculptural tombs): the most rewarding sculpture circuit concentrates on the area immediately to the left of the main entrance (the older section, from 1835-1890, the most architecturally varied tombs), the central avenue (the main axis with the largest monument structures), and the Art Nouveau section (the 1900-1920 tombs that show the specific Liberty style applied to funerary architecture). Time required: 2-2.5 hours for a serious sculpture visit; 45 minutes for a general impression circuit.
Cimitero Del Verano: tours & tickets
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See availability & prices →Compare tours on Viator →We may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.Famous Burials
Notable Verano burials: Trilussa (the Roman dialect poet Carlo Alberto Salustri. 1871-1950, whose sonnets in Romanesco the Roman popular tradition considers the most authentically local poetry written in Rome in the 20th century), Antonio De Curtis "Totò" (the Neapolitan comedian 1898-1967, the most beloved Italian comic actor of the 20th century, initially buried in Naples and reinterred at the Verano in 2002 at the family's request to remain in the city he had made his professional home), and the mass grave of the 335 Fosse Ardeatine martyrs (initially buried here before the transfer to the Fosse Ardeatine memorial in 1945, a historical connection documented in the cemetery records).
Q&A: Cimitero del Verano
When is the Cimitero del Verano open and is there an admission fee?
The Cimitero del Verano is open daily (approximately 7:30-17:30 in winter, 7:30-18:30 in summer, check the current hours at the AMA Roma website) and is free to enter (the cemetery is a public municipal space, not a tourist attraction requiring admission). The Ognissanti and Commemorazione dei Defunti period (November 1-2) is the most crowded, the Roman tradition of visiting family graves on All Saints Day brings tens of thousands of Romans to the Verano, making the cemetery in early November the most specifically Italian cultural experience available in Rome (the combination of the monumental funerary art, the family flowers, and the specific Italian relationship with death and memory that the November 1-2 cemetery visits express).
