Are you Protestant, Jewish, or Christian Orthodox? If so, and if you happened to die while visiting Rome in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, perhaps of ‘mal-aria’ in the summer months, chances are that you would be buried in the Cimitero Acattolico near Piramide, aka as the Protestant Cemetery. Catholic law in fact used to prohibit any non-Catholic from being buried in Catholic churches or cemeteries. Given that there were growing numbers Danes, Germans, English, Americans, Russians and Swedes who came to visit, study or live in Rome during in the 1800′s, the Cimitero Acattolico became the designated area to bury these ‘stranieri’. Now, it is the place where you can get away from it all while contemplating the graves of the Great. In what seems like a peaceful garden just meters away from the bustle of the Piramide area, you will find the tombs of Shelley, Keats, and Gramsci, to name the most famous of the many poets, historians, archaeologists, painters, sculptors, diplomats and intellectuals buried here. For a complete listing please visit the Cemetery’s website or the Cemetery’s Information Center. In addition to Keats’ gravestone where you will be able to read the famous ‘here lies one whose name was writ in water’, a lovely gravestone is that of sculptor William Wetmore Story and his wife with the statue of the grieving angel. Details about this spot (Show on map).jpg)
Image by Annalaura D'Errico
Cimitero Acattolico | Art & culture, Relaxing | Donation € 2.00
Via Caio Cestio 6 | Testaccio & Ostiense | +39065741900
Mon – Sat 09:00 – 17:00, Sun 09:00 – 13:00 (last entrance 16:30 & 12:30)
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Hi Kathy, many thanks for your comment. I am glad that you too find this place worthy of a visit.
The volunteers at the cemetery office/gift shop were incredibly helpful and informative. Plus, there are tons of cats lurking about and curled up on tombstones! I highly recommend a visit!
See also the nice Keat’s museum on the piazza di Spagna.Small but touching.
Quiet, relaxing area, gives you a much needed break from the unending visiting. You can spend hours here, taking in the very British-like landscape/gardening, plus nice monuments to view. The atmosphere is completely different than other such cemeteries (i.e. Père Lachaise in Paris….). Do not be over touristy and do make a donation ….
A fantastic place, very quiet.
A lot of cats live there.