San Michele Cemetery, Venice


The San Michele Cemetery has been Venice’s principal cemetery since its creation in 1807. The cemetery is located on the island of Isola di San Michele between Venice and Murano.
In addition to the main consecrated Catholic burial ground, there are separate Protestant and Eastern Orthodox sections catering to non-Catholics. The Jewish cemetery of Venice, however, is located on the island of Lido. Both the cemetery and the island are named after the church of San Michele in Isola built in the 15th century on the island, dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel.

History and details

The idea of relocating burial grounds outside of the city center originates from the Edict of Saint-Cloud, promulgated during French occupation in 1804 by Napoleon, mainly for hygiene reasons after intramural burials within church crypts was deemed unsafe. At first, San Cristoforo, designed by Gian Antonio Selva, was selected to become a cemetery. Bodies were carried to the island on special funeral gondolas.
Established in 1807, San Michele has been under continuous use as the main burial ground of Venice for over 200 years. Space is tight, and therefore cemetery management puts graves up for lease for 12 years, recycling communal plots following lease expiration by removing skeletal remains to be transferred to an ossuary. The cemetery had to be expanded several times, including its extension in 1839, when the canal separating the two islands of San Michele and San Cristoforo della Pace was filled in and two islands were joined.
The cemetery contains 7 war graves from World War I of officers and seamen of the British merchant and Royal Navy.
Princess Aspasia Manos, the wife of King Alexander of Greece, was initially interred at the Orthodox section of the San Michele cemetery. Her remains were later transferred to the royal cemetery plot in the park of Tatoi Palace near Athens.
In 1889, a crematorium was built in an area granted by the municipality. The original crematory running on gas generator was replaced by two new modern ovens installed in 1995 and 2004.
Other attractions include the Cappella Emiliana chapel. In 2013, the Ministry of Culture declared the San Michele cemetery, along with the Camaldolese monastery and church of San Michele in Isola on the island, to be of historical and artistic cultural heritage.
In 1998, the cemetery was the subject of an expansion competition, won by architect David Chipperfield. The project consisted of the addition of interior courtyards, as well as an ossuary and a service building. These buildings were completed in 2017. A third phase includes an extension of the island with gardens and funerary monuments.

The Protestant section

The Protestant section of San Michele is known as "Reparto Evangelico" in Italian. It is owned by Venice City Council and operated by three Protestant denominational bodies present in Venice, namely the Waldensian Evangelical Church, the Anglican Church and the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Italy. Although the main Catholic burial ground started operating in the early 1800s, Protestant burials took place later at its current dedicated plot. The Protestant section is surrounded on all four sides by a brick wall, with access via an iron gate linking it with the Catholic Cemetery.
There have been around 600 burials in the Protestant section over the last 150 years.

The Eastern Orthodox section

The Greek Orthodox cemetery of San Michele consists of the graves of the deceased Orthodox Christians, with Greeks and Russian expatriates constituting a majority of burials in the location. Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Diaghilev are among the most prominent Russians interred at the Orthodox section, as well as some members of noble families, such as the Bagrations, the Golitsyns, and the Potemkins-Tauricheskis. The first burial took place in 1816 at the consecrated burial ground for the use of Orthodox Christians.

Notable burials

List is sorted in order of the year of death.