The most terrible cemeteries and graves - photos, real stories, legends, beliefs. The most amazing and beautiful cemeteries in the world

There is something mystical about death. And where people find their last resting place, there is always a special, slightly creepy atmosphere. It excites the imagination, frightens and attracts at the same time. So there are superstitions, legends, ridiculous rumors creep. Here are collected the most interesting and unusual of them.

Graves of witches and sorcerers

If during life there was a bad rumor about a person, he was buried in a special way. The body could be burned, nailed to the ground, tied with straps, cut, cut the tendons, “sealed” with silver. Many peoples believed that a witch should be buried without a coffin, face down. Graves were often placed outside the fences of cemeteries, in forests, at crossroads. Stones were thrown from above, thorny bushes were planted.

If this is not done, the dead man will be able to get out. There is a belief that holes and cracks appear on the graves of witches and sorcerers over time, through which they come to the surface. A large number of ants, bleeding grass and strange sounds from underground also point to the place where the witch is buried. Without knowing these signs, it will be difficult to find it. But there are also well-known facts:

This cemetery is located in Salem, Massachusetts. Well, I think a lot of people have heard of the famous 1692 Salem witch trials. Then about 200 people were arrested on charges of witchcraft. Some were executed immediately (hanged or crushed with stones), others died in prison.

True, in 1702 the authorities officially recognized the process as illegal, in 1957 all sentences were canceled, and in 1992 the cemetery became a memorial to the victims. By the way, in fact, those convicted of witchcraft were not buried there. There are no witch graves in Salem. But the legend attracts tourists there.

And in the forests of Michigan rests a witch who, according to legend, destroyed an entire city. If in 1874 there were about 1500 inhabitants in Pere Cheney, then by the beginning of the 20th century there were 25 of them left. Two epidemics of diphtheria wiped out most of the population, the rest left. And the disease, of course, was sent by a local witch.

She is said to have given birth to an illegitimate child and was banished. The baby died, and then the woman cursed the city. In the end, the witch was caught, hanged, and the body was buried. Dark figures and ghostly lights still appear in that forest, the laughter of children can be heard. But get real photos of ghosts so far failed.

Graves of vampires and ghouls

Almost all peoples have legends about the dead who drink living blood. Usually such a fate awaited suicides, sorcerers excommunicated from the church ... yes, many others. And, of course, those who were bitten by a vampire. Naturally, people were afraid of these creatures and took measures so that the deceased would not leave his grave after death. And for this it is important to properly bury someone who can become a vampire.

The body should be burned or at least pierced with an aspen stake and laid so that it is oriented from east to west. It is desirable to separate the head and place it between the feet. So that the corpse could not eat its shroud, it is necessary to slip something under the chin (stone, iron). You can also pour sawdust or grains into the coffin so that the vampire begins to count them and does not have time to get out before dawn. Here are the most famous burials:

In the north part of London there is an old Highgate cemetery. It has attracted attention for a long time. There are frequent reports of vampires, and suspicious graves are marked with a V. Visitors find dug up and decapitated corpses, empty coffins. Several bodies were exhumed, and they looked strange.

Plump, plump… not quite dead… There are real photos of vampires they look exactly like this. But everything is easier to explain. The corpse always swells, this is one of the stages of decomposition. There is blood on the lips. If you pierce the body with a stake, it can make a groan, as the accumulated gases will pass by the vocal cords.

The Père Lachaise cemetery in France is also considered a haven for vampires. It all started in 1848 when some lunatic dug up some graves, pulled out the bodies and badly damaged them. He felt that he should do so. Since then, rumors have spread. However, appearance some gravestones are suggestive.

The symbolism of the burials looks ominous. Skulls and bats, which are considered the visual embodiment of vampires, fatalistic inscriptions ... However, in the 19th century Western Europe it was accepted. According to another version of the image bat with outstretched wings served as protection from evil.

Wandering graves and restless crypts

There is a belief that the earth does not accept the ashes of a person if they have not been properly buried. Creepy stories about moving graves have flooded the Internet. In general, this phenomenon has been known for a long time, but the evidence is bad. Everyone rewrites the same texts, where non-existent cities and people are mentioned. There are no real photos or documents.

Normal explanations too. Perhaps there are forces and energies at work here that we do not yet know anything about. Like when it exploded Chelyabinsk meteorite, strange things also happened… negative pressure and many other things… But in the case of the graves, it was something else. If they moved at all. Here are a couple of more or less plausible stories:

This event happened even before the revolution in a remote Russian village. At night, a mound of earth with a half-rotted cross appeared in one of the huts. They tried to remove the grave, but it turned out that there was also a lot of earth under the floor. When it was carried out, human remains were found there.

The cross looked like those that were installed in an abandoned cemetery near the village. How all this ended up in the hut, no one understood. The grave was taken out, the bones were reburied. But the house had to be abandoned. Since then, people have avoided the terrible place.

The Chase family crypt is located in Barbados. It is carved into the rock and covered with a marble slab. Every time it was opened, the coffins that were there turned out to be turned on their side, standing upright, scattered ... They seemed to be spreading around the room. This was repeated from 1812 to 1820.

Various versions have been put forward, from Voodoo magic and Masonic rites to floods and shifts in the earth's crust. Researcher Eric Russell in the middle of the 20th century identified a number of patterns in these phenomena. He believed that metal coffins are moved by water under the influence of gravity and a magnetic field.

So what is it? True or just gossip? I don't know.. But here the materials are collected all over the Internet, I didn't even manage to identify the primary sources. And the dead cannot confirm or deny the rumors about them. In anticipation of better times, they will keep their ancient secrets.

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I propose to take a walk around the Novodevichy cemetery, which is located on the territory of the current Resurrection Novodevichy Convent. Many do not even suspect the existence of the Novodevichy cemetery in St. Petersburg, believing that a cemetery and a monastery under this name exist only in Moscow. Nevertheless, today the St. Petersburg Novodevichy Cemetery is beginning to revive, tombstones are being restored here, interesting excursions are being conducted (both ordinary tourist and special pilgrimage ones), and that’s it. more people learn about this place.

Before the revolution, the Novodevichy Cemetery was one of the most expensive and prestigious in St. Petersburg, and although it suffered greatly during the Soviet period, it remains a valuable historical necropolis to this day. A walk around the Novodevichy cemetery will be of interest both to those who like to study the biographies of prominent people, and to connoisseurs of artistic tombstones. There are also shrines here, where people come to pray or just make a wish. You can read about famous people buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in a separate article. In the meantime, we will talk about the most beautiful and unusual tombstones of the Novodevichy cemetery, and also get acquainted with its history (and the history of the monastery itself).

The most beautiful and unusual tombstones of the Novodevichy cemetery in St. Petersburg

Among the tombstones at the Novodevichy Cemetery there are sarcophagi, obelisks, slabs, steles with crosses, pedestals, hills with large chips, monuments in the form of an oncoming wave, chapels, miniature churches ... There are also monuments with portraits of the deceased, but they are quite few, since busts, bas-reliefs and other similar details suffered during the destruction of the cemetery in the first place.

Although a significant part of the pre-revolutionary burials have not survived to this day, we can still admire the surviving monuments of the 19th - early 20th centuries, which are of undoubted historical and artistic value.

Many headstones are made from valuable materials, including rare marbles and granites. On some, you can still read the names of the owners of the workshops where they were made.

From the point of view of artistic merit, family chapels-tombs stand out especially.

Unfortunately, all of them are ruined and are unlikely to be restored to their former splendor, however, even today they amaze with the quality and variety of design.

Perhaps the most beautiful is the Art Nouveau tomb of Lucia Gilse Van der Pals, née Johansen.

The massive chapel with a decorative frieze is a stylization of an ancient Egyptian tomb.

The tomb was built in 1904 according to the design of the architect V. Yu. Johansen in the workshop of Yu. P. Korsak. Its walls are made of Radom sandstone, the plinth is made of granite, and the floor is marble.

Inside the tomb, a marble bas-relief by the Piedmontese sculptor Pietro Canonica (1869-1959) (sometimes spelled "Canonicus" or "Canonico") has survived. During his long life, the master managed to work fruitfully in Russia, Italy, England, Turkey ... Not everyone knows that once on Manezhnaya Square in St. Petersburg there was an equestrian monument to Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich by Pietro Canonica (1914). In 1918, the “ugly idol” was demolished, however, in the House-Museum of Canonica, in the Villa Borghese park in Rome, to this day you can see the models created for the monument. From other works of Canonica, we know the sculpture of the nun "After taking the vow" (currently one of the options is on display at the St. Petersburg Museum of the History of Religion).

Buried in such an exquisite chapel, Lucia (Lucy) was the daughter of a Danish professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Julius Johansen, and the wife of a Dutch consul, co-director of the Russian-American Manufactory of Rubber Products (the future Red Triangle), philanthropist and philanthropist Heinrich van Gilse van der Pals. Many people are familiar with the luxurious mansion of G. G. Gilze van der Pals on English Avenue (the current military enlistment office). The mansion was built by Lucia's brother, the architect William Yulievich Johansen (who, as was said, designed this magnificent tombstone). From old photographs it can be seen that the rooms of the mansion were decorated with marble statues by Pietro Canonica, including the mentioned figure of a nun. Apparently, Gilse van der Pals was a connoisseur of the work of Canonica, so it is not surprising that he entrusted him with the sculptural decoration of the grave of his beloved wife.

Another interesting burial place from the point of view of artistic merit is the grave of the artillery general Dmitry Sergeevich Mordvinov (1820-1894). This is undoubtedly one of the most famous and beautiful tombstones of the St. Petersburg Novodevichy cemetery. Unfortunately, the side plates with the name of the buried person have been lost, but the artistic metal fence has survived.

The most remarkable detail of the gravestone is the bronze figure of a seated angel over a marble sarcophagus. A live flower is often placed in the hand of an angel.

The sculpture of an angel was created in the workshop of the French sculptor and artist Charles Berto (Karl Avgustovich Berto) (Charles Bertault). Petersburg bronze foundry Berto (former F. Chopin) specialized in the production of small bronze plastics. For participation in the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900, where the products of the factory were awarded a gold medal, Berto received the title of "Supplier of the Court of His Imperial Majesty." Despite this, due to financial difficulties, after two years he had to close the case and return to France.

Sculptural monuments with marble or bronze figures of angels standing or sitting at the tombstone were very common at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, but few such examples have survived to this day. Therefore, despite the fact that we have before us just a “typical” sample, not related to the individuality of the customer, the tombstone is perceived as a great value.

As for the identity of D.S. Mordvinov buried here, it is known that he served in the artillery from a young age. In 1856 he was appointed head of a separate office of the War Office, and ten years later he became director of the office of the War Office, to which he devoted almost half of his many years of service. In 1872, Mordvinov was granted the adjutant general to His Imperial Majesty; in 1881 he was appointed a member of the Military Council and awarded with diamond badges of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky. In 1883, Mordvinov was promoted to artillery general, and in 1889 he celebrated his 50th anniversary of service in the officer ranks and received the Order of St. Vladimir, 1st degree.

It is also worth paying attention to the tombstone of the St. Petersburg architect, who, however, is not very well known to the public. This is Ivan Denisovich Chernik (1811-1874), who worked in the military department and built, in particular, the new building of the General Staff and the Kryukov (Naval) barracks.

The burial of I. D. Chernik is one of the most beautiful surviving monuments at the Novodevichy cemetery. It is a magnificent white marble sarcophagus on a high pedestal. The board with the epitaph and the name of the deceased has not been preserved, but the bas-relief portraits of I. D. Chernik himself and his wife have survived (the latter, unfortunately, was damaged by vandals and cannot be restored due to the specifics of Carrara marble.

The monument was made in the workshop of the Italian sculptor Domenico Carli in Genoa (1878).

One of the most unusual burials at the Novodevichy Cemetery is the grave of a mathematician, professor Vladimir Pavlovich Maksimovich (1850-1889).

Maksimovich was born in St. Petersburg into a noble family and early years had outstanding mathematical abilities. Studied in St. Petersburg and Paris, worked at Kazan and Kiev universities. At the beginning of 1889, the mathematician was diagnosed with a severe mental illness, and in the same year he died at the age of 39.

The tombstone of Vladimir Maksimovich is a stone sphere in an artistic metal fence. On the sphere - images of the signs of the zodiac and a quote from Byron's poem "Ephthanasia" (Euthanasia) on English language (« Count o "er the joys thine hours have seen...»).

This poem is known in the translations of I. Goltz-Miller and V. Levik (in the arrangement of the latter, this quatrain sounds like this: “He is close, the day calling for the feast, || Count the blessings of past days, || And you will understand: whoever you were in life, || Not to be, not to live - much more truly").

To be continued...

Grieving relatives are doing everything to perpetuate the memory of the deceased loved ones, turning ordinary gravestones either into something very allegorical or into sculptures that are real works of art.

Grieving relatives do everything to perpetuate the memory of the deceased loved ones, turning ordinary gravestones either into something very allegorical or into sculptures that are real works of art:

1. Woman at the piano. She may have been a musician during her lifetime

2. This woman was very fond of Mickey Mouse

3. Maybe this guy died because he smoked too much?

4. The grave of the creator of the labyrinth

5. "Eternal sleep"

6. A tree swallowed up an old grave

7. Tombstone over the grave of the inventor of the gas lamp Charles Pigeon, Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris, France

8. Such a grave was made at the behest of a heartbroken mother for her late 10-year-old daughter in 1871.

When the girl was alive, she was terrified of thunderstorms. Next to her grave is a special basement, which was dug to the level of the coffin. During a thunderstorm, the girl's mother went down to the basement to "calm down" her child.

Source 9The life-size statue of a girl under a glass jar was custom-made at the request of her mother.

10. This is the grave of a 16-year-old girl. The headstone was commissioned by her sister.

11. "Love to the grave", Thailand

12. This monument depicts the Savior, who holds in his hands two ropes from a simple children's swing with a crossbar.

A little girl sits on a swing below. The sculptural composition reminds that the life of everyone on earth is in the hands of God.

13. A tombstone in the form of a mobile phone was found in one of the Israeli cemeteries.

Various inscriptions are engraved on the tombstone, for example: "Please leave a message - I will reply as soon as I can"

14. "Together Forever"

15. This terrifying grave is located in a cemetery in Genoa, Italy

16. The grave of the Belgian writer Georges Rodenbach.The headstone represents the writer himself, rising from the grave with a rose in his hand.

17. The design of this Victorian-era grave serves to ensure that the dead do not leave their final resting place.

Many in those days firmly believed in the existence of vampires and thus prevented the release of the reincarnated dead. In fact, medical students needed corpses to study anatomy, and for the sake of gaining knowledge, they did not disdain excavating fresh graves. To secure the attempt on the deceased, relatives ordered forged gratings on the graves of loved ones.

18. Nature is relentless...

19. Fernand Arbelote was a musician and actor who died in 1990.

He was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. During his lifetime, Fernand wished to forever look at the face of his wife.

20. Tombstone of the 18th century, under which rests a French journalist

21. Gravestone in the form of a board for playing scrabble

22. The graves of a Catholic woman and her Protestant husband, who were not allowed to be buried together

In the 1800s, it was forbidden to bury Catholics and Protestants in the same cemetery.

23. This grave is all that remains of an old rural cemetery in India.

A state highway was built on the site of the cemetery. The grandson, whose grandmother was buried there, refused to move the grave. In the end, the authorities went to meet him and built a road around the grave.

Everyone understands that sooner or later each of us will be here. And then another unknown afterlife. And so far no one has been able to cheat death.

But there are special cemeteries that scare not because of their reminder of the finiteness of life. In these places one feels some special atmosphere in the very air. Having visited these cemeteries, everyone claims that “something is wrong here, something presses on thoughts and makes you leave this place as quickly as possible.” Plus stories about ghosts and unusual occurrences! Want to tickle your nerves? That way.

You might be surprised that the first cemetery photo on this list is of an airport. However, this is really a cemetery! Back in the 1980s, when the airport was just being built, under runway No. 10 were the graves of the Dotson couple, a married couple who used to live in a house on the site of the airport and were buried on the site next to it. The airport repeatedly negotiated with Dotson's relatives about the transfer of the remains, but they did not agree, and without the consent of relatives in the United States, this is not allowed.

The airport has made original tombstones for the couple on runway 10 itself. Pilots who are aware of the tombstones say the runway gets on their nerves.

The architectural splendor of the Recoleta cemetery is striking, but it was not included in this list because of it, but because of a number of terrible and unusual stories about those who are buried there: next to the grave of Evita Peron, on which fresh flowers always lie, 19- Rufina Cambaceres, a young woman who was buried alive and woke up from a coma right in the crypt. But after a while she woke up and began to call for help, trying to open the door of the crypt. The guard heard her, but, possessed by superstitious fear, did not dare to open the door. When, some time later, the girl's relatives entered the crypt, they found her now really lifeless body on the floor near the door. She died of a heart attack. The inside of the crypt was covered in scratches and Rufina's blood.

Here also lies David Alleno, a poor gravedigger who spent thirty years saving money for a burial plot. Having received the necessary amount, David ordered his monument, which already had two dates in advance ... very soon everything became clear: happy with a dream come true, the caretaker notified the cemetery management of his dismissal and, full of desire to quickly try on his own tomb, hurried home, where he said goodbye to life. He was exactly 40 years old.

In the Philippines, the inhabitants of the mountainous province of Sagada have been burying their dead in so-called "hanging coffins" for more than two thousand years. With the help of ropes, wooden coffins are fixed high above the ground on limestone rocks. Among the indigenous population, it is believed that the higher the body of the deceased is buried, the closer his soul is to heaven. Today this place is known as the Hanging Coffins of Sagada. Cemeteries always hang over the heads of people from this tribe. For example, this rock covered with coffins looks creepy!

This cemetery is a popular tourist attraction in the Romanian village of Sapinta. The monuments of the cemetery, painted in bright colors, take us away from the mourning atmosphere of the place, and the epitaphs on them can be both funny and even satirical. From cheerful inscriptions on tombstones sometimes it becomes really creepy.

The plots of some tombstones depict scenes from the life of the dead or humorously play up their weaknesses: Ion liked to kiss the bottle during his lifetime, and the carver depicted him with a bottle of horinka (an alcoholic drink made from fruits) in his hands; Gheorghe played the violin at rural weddings, and in this image the master captured him on a tomb portrait ...

This is perhaps one of the most famous cemeteries in England. Every crypt and every statue here is an architectural masterpiece.

Among the Gothic splendor of statues, crypts and crosses, disturbing public incidents associated with vampires often occur.

Here's what the O'Briens of Glasgow had to say when they visited Highgate in 2005. At the hotel, they were warned that there were vampires in the cemetery, whose crypts were marked with the letter V. If you call them by name, adding a letter, the dead will come out no different from people. Taking the information lightly, the guests of London went for a tour.

At the entrance they were met by an elderly lady in an old-fashioned outfit. After reading the list of rules, the O'Briens inquired about the "don't say the word 'vampire'" clause. The fanged old woman was embarrassed, said that this was a joke of the builders, and the sign would soon be replaced.

While waiting for the guide, the couple looked at the tombstones and saw the letter "V" on one of them. Exclaiming, "Oh, there lies a vampire," they noticed that three people named Jefferson, who had died on the same day, were buried in the grave. Almost immediately, they saw a trio of strangers dressed in the style of the 19th century - an old woman, a girl and a young man. Husband O'Brien called the old woman by her last name. To which she replied with an unknown reprimand: “Excuse me, do we know each other?”, But the couple replied that they misunderstood.

Trying to film the strange visitors, O'Brien didn't notice the guide, who forbade the filming. In indignation, the husband returned to the checkpoint, where there was an unfamiliar girl. He said that he paid for the filming, but the girl replied that filming had been banned for several years. Looking at the presented receipt, the young usher said that such were issued seven years ago, and the described old guide was killed by a tree during a thunderstorm two years ago.

The couple were surprised, but joined the sightseers. When a visitor's cell phone rang, the strange guide became interested in the phone as an unfamiliar object that makes sounds. On the way, the couple again met a grave with the letter “V” and an oak branch carved below. No doubt it belonged to the old ticket clerk.

When O'Brien asked the guide what the letter "V" carved on rare tombstones meant and what he knew about the Highgate vampires, the gentleman was embarrassed and took to his heels. Attempts to catch up were unsuccessful - the elderly gentleman vanished into thin air!

When the couple tried to find out the name of the old man from the ticket girl, she was surprised and said that excursions were led by history students. Having examined the pictures that they managed to take, the couple did not see the trinity and the guide they met, although the rest of them turned out great.

Another well-known ghost is an insane woman running around the cemetery looking for the children she killed.

Greyfriars Cemetery is an old cemetery with a rich history. The cemetery got its name from the Greyfriars Church, located in the southern part of Edinburgh, at which it was created. The cemetery was founded in the 1560s. at the local prison. Of the 1200 prisoners, only 257 left it alive - the rest remained here forever. Now a rare brave man will dare to enter the gates of Greyfriars at night - the souls of the innocently killed will not give him rest. It is said that in 2006 alone there were more than 450 ‘mystery attacks’ on tourists at night.

One of the most curious facts about this cemetery was Bobby the terrier, who lived on the grave of his owner for more than 10 years, and after his death, was buried at the cemetery gate. Today, a ghostly dog ​​is sometimes seen here, according to churchyard ministers, this is the ghost of Bobby the terrier, which continues to guard the grave of its owner even after death.

Not all islands of the Venetian lagoon are cozy and affectionate. Proof of this is the gloomy island-cemetery of San Michele. And it’s not the appearance that makes it gloomy at all - everything is fine with it, cypress trees stand everywhere in orderly rows, a beautiful wall surrounds the island around the perimeter, and inside these walls you can find very picturesque corners and old churches.

People are afraid to visit even ordinary cemeteries. What would you say about the whole island of the dead? When it was found that burials in the main territory of Venice lead to unsanitary conditions, the dead began to be taken out to San Michele. This is still done in a gondola specially designated for this.

The mining towns of La Noria and Humberstone are located in the middle of the desert in Chile. The history of these towns is a terrible story about the violence of the masters over their slave miners. Sometimes they were simply brutally killed, without sparing the children, who suffered more than adults, since their small bodies could not survive the terrible conditions and torture from the slave owners. They were buried in the cemetery of La Noria; now, when you are in this cemetery, the feeling of the otherworldly environment around does not leave. The cemetery is full of open and dug graves where the bodies are fully visible, leaving you to wonder why. There are chilling rumors that at sunset the dead rise from their graves and begin to roam the abandoned mining town. Residents of Chile also reported seeing children in abandoned schools as if they were sitting in a normal class. In addition, ghostly images are often displayed in photographs of visitors.

The Church of the Dead is famous not only for its big name, which any heavy metal band can envy, but also for the exposition of 18 well-preserved mummies. The mummies were not created artificially - they are the result of the 'work' of a special fungus in the crypt. Behind the classic baroque arch, you have a great view of most of them. Each of the 18 preserved mummies is in its own alcove. The church was built, which is characteristic, the Brotherhood of the Good Death.

3. Bachelors Grove Cemetery, Chicago, Illinois, USA

One of the most famous photographs of the ghost of a woman on a grave. It was made during the investigation conducted by the Society for the Study of Ghosts in the cemetery in Bachelor's Grove.

Bachelors Grove Cemetery is considered one of the most haunted in the United States. It is located near the city of Crestwood and covers an area equal to approximately one acre. The cemetery has not been used for its intended purpose since 1965. It is overgrown, has a neglected appearance and is often subjected to acts of vandalism. Young people, in search of thrills, regularly tear up graves here, smash coffins and dump their contents. Traces of animal sacrifices next to the pond in one of the corners of the cemetery indicate that this place is used from time to time by people involved in witchcraft, shamanism and Satanism.

The cemetery owes its name to the fact that the site was once home to single German immigrants who worked on the Illinois-Michigan Canal. The place for the cemetery was allotted in 1864, and the first ghosts appeared on it during the era of gangsters (20-30s of the last century), when the bodies of victims of gang warfare were often dumped into the cemetery pond.

“One of the most popular graveyard ghosts is the so-called Hook Spirit. scary stories Dozens of locals talk about it. Here, for example, is one of them. Once a young man brought his girlfriend in a car to the cemetery. Here he began to tell her about the Spirit with the Hook, apparently hoping that fear would push the girl into his arms. Instead, she asked to be taken home. To a young man there was nothing else to do but fulfill her request.”

When the couple in love drove up to the house, and the young man went out first to open the door for the lady, he saw a hook hanging from the handle of the car door. It turns out that the ghost was trying to open it at the very moment when the car started moving from the cemetery.

Another, more bloodthirsty, story tells of a young couple who drove up to the cemetery late one evening in search of a secluded place. However, they were prevented from falling in love by a radio message about the escape of a maniac killer from a nearby psychiatric hospital.

Since the maniac could also appear near the cemetery, the lovers decided to leave the dangerous area, but, of course, the car would not start. The guy decided to go for help, punishing the girl to stay in the car. Soon she heard strange scratching on the roof, but decided that the cause of these sounds was tree branches.

After a while, a police car drove up to the cemetery. The officer told the girl to get out of the car and walk towards him without looking back. However, curiosity got the better of her, and the girl still looked around. What she saw shocked her: the body of her lover hung head down from the tree, and the throat of the young man was torn from ear to ear. Fingers scratched on the roof of the car ...

2. Catacombs, Paris, France

The number of "inhabitants" of the catacombs of Paris is almost three times the number of Parisians living above - almost 6 million corpses are buried here. The ebullient life of the chic "upper Paris" is terribly different from gloomy city dead underground. Here you can find whole corridors of skulls and bones. The Parisian catacombs are huge, and no one knows how confusing their labyrinth is: it is quite possible to get lost here forever.

The Crypt of the Capuchins are 6 rooms located under the church of Santa Maria della Concezione in Italy. It contains 3,700 skeletons of monks of the Capuchin brotherhood. When their remains were brought here in 1631, they took 300 carts and were buried in earth specially brought from Jerusalem. After 30 years, the remains were exhumed and displayed in the hall. But the worst thing is not the mummies themselves, but the “message of the brotherhood”, translated into 5 languages: “We were what you are. You will be what we are." You can read more about this.

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On January 6, 1993, the world famous ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev passed away. According to the wish of the star, he was buried in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois near Paris, and his tombstone became as unique as the dancer himself was. Many celebrities design their tombstones and monuments on their own during their lifetime, but for some, fans and heirs pay tribute to them. At the same time, often decorations of graves famous people are true works of art.

1. Rudolf Nureyev. After the death of the artist, one of the leading artists of the Paris Opera, Enzo Frigerio, who was a friend and colleague of the dancer, suggested decorating his grave in the form of an oriental carpet, since Nureyev loved ancient carpets and ancient textiles from different countries.

With the funds raised by the dancer's friends in 1996, the tombstone was made in the Italian mosaic workshop Acomena Spazio Mosaico. At the same time, the mosaic is made of such high quality that the seams between small elements are practically not visible on it.

Some tourists even ask if the carpet gets wet in the rain and how often it is changed, the tombstone turned out so realistic.

2.

3. Vaslav Nijinsky. Another Russian dancer and choreographer of Polish origin, one of the leading members of the Russian Diaghilev Ballet, is also buried in Paris, at the Montmartre cemetery.

4. Yuri Nikulin. The grave of the beloved actor is decorated with a sculptural composition: a smoking pensive actor in a hat, at whose feet lies a Giant Schnauzer - the first dog that the artist brought from abroad.

5. Freddie Mercury. Although the ashes of the singer were scattered, a sculptural portrait in Swiss Montreux is considered his place of memory and a kind of tombstone. The statue was made in 1996, five years after the death of the actor.

6. John Wayne. After the death of the legend of American cinema, his grave stood without a monument for almost 20 years. The actor himself asked to write on the tombstone: "Ugly, strong and worthy", however, against his will, a scene from a western was depicted on the stone and a quote was placed: "Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. It comes to us at midnight very clean. It's great when it comes and it's in our hands Tomorrow hopes we learned something from "yesterday".

7. Jimi Hendrix. The musician is buried in Greenwood Memorial Park in Renton, Washington, and his grave is adorned with a majestic stone pavilion.

8 Buck Owens Perhaps the most recognizable country artist of the 20th century died in 2006 after a heart attack and was buried in Bakersfield, California, and his mausoleum leaves no doubt that the musician is buried there.

9. Jim Morrison The musician's grave is one of the most visited attractions in Paris, and it is notable for graffiti, commemorative inscriptions and souvenirs left on it by fans. Morrison's tombstone has been stolen and destroyed so many times that it is now under guard.

10 Michael Jackson The remains of the king of pop are kept in an unmarked crypt at the famous Forest Lawn Cemetery near Los Angeles, California. Although it is filled with flowers and other gifts from fans, the crypt is closed to visitors and is constantly guarded.

11. The remains of the writer Jules Verne buried in the Cimetière de la Madeleine cemetery (Amiens, France) and decorated with a rather creepy tombstone.

12. Sir Isaac Newton was so dedicated to science during his lifetime that even by his tombstone it becomes obvious.

14. Tombstone of Edgar Allan Poe, who died in 1849, is crowned with a raven, the symbol of which was invariably present in the writer's work. The grave is also notable for the fact that someone constantly leaves a bottle of booze on it.

15. Grave of John F. Kennedy, killed in 1963, looks stern and majestic in the company of "eternal flame".

16. Merv Griffin. It is not the tombstone of the TV star itself that is noteworthy, but the epitaph on it: “I will not return after this message.”

17. Princess Diana buried at Althorp, North Hampshire, on a beautiful island surrounded by a small lake inhabited by four swans.

18. This is the gravestone of Oscar Wilde in Paris.

19. At some point, a tradition appeared to leave the writer a “kiss” on the wall of the tomb.

20. The body of Irish writer James Joyce buried in a grave next to his wife and son, who is watched over by his own statue.

21. Bob Marley died of cancer in 1981 at the age of 36. His grave is placed in a vast mausoleum, set just a few feet from his childhood home in the village of Nine Mile. The whole structure resembles a small house rather than a burial place.

22. Monument to Bruce Lee Lakeview Cemetery in Seattle attracts people from all over the world.

23. Fashion star Coco Chanel buried in the Swiss city of Lausanne, and her elegant tombstone is complemented by a floral arrangement made in the shape of the Chanel logo.

24. Although John Lennon and was cremated with the fate of his ashes a mystery, people flock to the Strawberry Fields Memorial in New York's Central Park to pay their respects.

25. Veteran actor Joe Mafela was buried at Westpark Cemetery in Johannesburg, and his tombstone is a replica of a living room with a plasma TV, coffee table and sofa.

26. This is the tombstone of the musician and actor Fernand Arbelo., who died in 1990 and was buried in Paris at the Père Lachaise cemetery, and his tombstone depicts him holding his wife's face, as the actor wished to look at him for eternity.

7. Actress Carrie Fisher was buried in Hollywood next to her mother, Debbie Reynolds. Their graves are adorned with a combined headstone designed to show the depth of their emotional connection.

28. This tombstone belongs to Jack Crowell, who owned the last wooden clothespin factory in the United States.

29. Comedian Jack Lemmon and after his death did not lose his sense of humor: on his tombstone is the inscription: "Jack Lemmon inside."

30. Bob Hope. An American comedian, theater and film actor rests under a gravestone in the form of a stage.

31. Victor Mature. The tomb of the Hollywood legend is crowned with a statue of a sobbing angel.

32. Johnny Ramone A member of The Ramones is depicted on a grave statue giving a concert.

33. Tomb of Karl Marx looks monumental, and the statue accompanies the call "Proletarians of all countries unite."

34. Belgian writer Georges Rodenbach buried under a gravestone, from which his bronze copy appears to come out with a rose in one hand.

35. Grave of French journalist Victor Noir has become an unspoken symbol of love and fertility. Tradition says: if you want to find a beautiful lover, you must kiss the statue on the lips, if you want to get pregnant, just touch his right foot, if you want to have twins, touch his left foot. Well, another organ is also quite often touched by visitors.

36. Grave of Frederic Chopin with a gentle, like his music, sculpture.

37. Theodore Géricault. The tomb of the French painter in Pere Lachaise is decorated with his bronze statue with a brush and palette in his hands, and on one side is a bronze version of his painting "The Raft of the Medusa".

38. Fedor Chaliapin died on April 12, 1938, was buried at the Batignolles cemetery, but in October 1984 his ashes were transferred to the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow, where they opened a monument made by sculptor Alexei Yeletsky.

39. Nikita Bogoslovsky. The composer's music can be heard in many Soviet films, and his tombstone at the Novodevichy Cemetery is made in the form of a piano lid.

40. Archil Gomiashvili. Many consider the actor "the best Ostap Bender of all time." He was buried at the Troekurovsky cemetery, and it is the sculpture in the image of the Great Combinator that adorns his grave.

41. And this is the gravestone of Savely Kramarov.

42. Anna Politkovskaya. Perhaps the most unusual and figurative tombstone of a celebrity at the Troekurovsky cemetery...

43. And this is a monument to Micah, leader of the Jumanji group.

44. Those lying in these graves were not celebrities and became famous precisely because of the tombstones. A Catholic woman and her Protestant husband were not allowed to be buried together ( Roermond, Netherlands, 1880 and 1888 - Mariinsk). And two hands connect the graves through the wall.

45. And this unique monument depicts a boy who has been tied to a wheelchair all his life. The boy's name was Matthew Stanford Robison (Matthew Stanford Robinson), born September 23, 1988 Died: February 21, 1999, was paralyzed, blind and spoke only a few words. The sculpture - as a symbol of the son's liberation from earthly burdens, was installed by the father in 2000.

Of course, the tombstones of not all departed celebrities are shown here. But you can add in your comments...