It was one of the places I have been meaning to visit for quite some time but given the gloomy times we are living I had been postponing it until now.
The Highgate Cemetery is the most famous cemetery here in the United Kingdom and it is located in the homonymous district in north London.
It dates back to the beginning of the 19th century and a sign at the entrance mentions some information about the place and it says that thanks to its pure gothic buildings, Highgate Cemetery soon became a coveted burial place for the aristocratic families of the Victorian age.
The most recent part of the cemetery looks like a normal cemetery while the most interesting part of it full of mysteries and legends is to the west.
Here is where sleeps in peace, among others, Karl Marx, whose famous commemorative bust is located at the entrance to the east part.
The Highgate Cemetery is notorious for its mysterious apparitions and disturbing facts that apparently have occurred over time.
Booking a guided tour is the only way to enter the west side of the great Highgate Cemetery, which awaits its visitors at the gates of the imposing entrance on Swain's Lane, a majestic entrance that is worthy of the treasures it holds.
The chapel on the left was the reception room of the dissenters and today is the headquarters of the Friends of Highgate, the organization that takes care of the maintenance and restoration works, while the other, deconsecrated in the 70s, occasionally hosts some exhibitions.
The plaza of the colonnade, a large space conceived for a grand entrance of the carriages and their entourage, as the Victorian custom required, is today the meeting point, where the groups of visitors leave for the guided tour.
The caskets that had to go to the east part, built at a later time, descended via a freight lift into a tunnel that crosses Swain's Lane to come out where there are now the ticket office and information office huts. The route organized by the tour is well defined and it is not allowed to go further due to the fact that the smaller paths are not all made safe.
Despite the efforts it seems that this huge open-air museum still needs a lot of work.
Who knows if it will ever go back to being that work of landscaping that was in the old times, when the fashion of the moment wanted these places to resemble as much as possible relaxing gardens, safe areas full of pretty corners where mourners, but also those who only wanted a few hours of rest, they could spend their free time taking walks and picnics, ideally and spiritually, next to their deceased loved ones.
Certainly, the spaces for these activities have been reduced due to the countless series of tombs of various shapes and sizes; in some places the vegetation is so dense that you can only see the most imposing ones with their broken columns, upside-down torches, angels, urns and other funerary symbols.
With the exception of the sides of the paths where the order has returned, the cemetery enjoys a reputation to be really sinister.
This fame was born thanks to tales of ghosts and vampires as well as vandals who more recently destroyed a good chunk of the sculptural heritage.
Along the main path there are many impressive works: the first that the guide pointed out is one of the largest Mausoleums in England, built like a large island and it is no coincidence, given that its inhabitant was a general who gained prestige and fame thanks to the Spanish War of Independence.
Majestic entrance Highgate Cemetery
I find it disrespectful to take photos of the tombstones so I included the entrance only
