Rome

[Queen Victoria]

Uncertainty for Rome's Protestant cemetery

Barbara McMahon in Rome
Monday June 13, 2005

Guardian

The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Thursday June 16, 2005
In the article below we stated that Shelley was drowned in 1882 and not 1822, the actual year of his death. We also state that Goethe's son (August) Julius "was born of his affair with Christianne Vulpius". It was a little more than an affair, in that they did live together for 18 years and scandalised the Weimar court but they also married in 1806 and continued living together as man and wife until Christianne's death in 1816.


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The cemetery in Rome where Keats and Shelley are buried has long been a place of pilgrimage for tourists and a haven from the noise of Italy's capital city. But now its future is uncertain after the Dutch ambassador who has been in charge of its administration prepares to retire and warns that nobody else is willing to take on the unpaid, volunteer position.

The five-acre graveyard next to the Pyramid of Caio Cestio in the Testaccio area dates back to at least 1748, when papal land was donated as a last resting place for people, mostly Protestants, from northern Europe, who were not allowed to be buried in consecrated ground.

Since 1945 the graveyard has been run by a foundation with a rotating president from the countries whose citizens are buried there. They are Canada, Australia, Italy, Norway, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Britain and the US.

For the past four years, ambassador Ronald Loudon from the Netherlands has served as administrator, raising money with other volunteers and overseeing the work of the eight staff that keep the grounds clean and maintain the 2,520 tombs.

Maintenance of the cemetery is paid for by money collected from tourists, private donations and from fundraising events.

Mr Loudon is due to return home in October and says he has been unable to find a successor. It is not mandatory for any ambassador to serve as administrator and many feel, he said, that it is too big a responsibility.

"I took on the task four years ago, but I will be returning to Holland in October and none of my colleagues have said they will replace me," he said.

He has called a meeting later this month of all the countries involved to see if a committee may be more efficient.

More than 10,000 people a year visit the cemetery, with the graves of Keats and Shelley attracting the most interest.

Ravaged by consumption, John Keats died in Rome at the age of 25 in 1821 and he is buried in a quiet corner of the graveyard with a simple tombstone. On it is written the epitaph: "This grave contains all that was mortal of a young English poet, who on his death bed, in the bitterness of his heart at the malicious power of his enemies, desired these words to be engraved on his tomb stone. Here lies one whose name was writ in water."

Percy Bysshe Shelley was in Italy during the same period as Keats and spent the last years of his life travelling around the country with his wife, the author Mary Shelley.

He composed many of his greatest poems in Italy and Keats' death inspired his famous elegy Adonais. In the preface he describes the final resting place of his friend: "It might make one in love with death to know that one should be buried in so sweet a place."

In 1882 Shelley was drowned while sailing in a storm off the shore of Lerici, near Pisa. After his cremation, his ashes were brought to the cemetery for burial.

The graveyard is also the final resting place of other foreigners who have died in Rome since the late 18th century, including Goethe's only son, Julius, born of his affair with Christiane Vulpius, and the Scottish novelist R M Ballantyne. Joseph Severn, the young artist who befriended Keats when he rented rooms in Piazza di Spagna and who stayed with him until he died, is also buried there.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

[cameron]

Thanks your maj.

The English Cemetery in Florence (where Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, Walter Savage Landor and Arthur Hugh Clough are buried) is also under threat of closure unless funds for renovation are forthcoming. For more info check out Julia Bolton Holloway's blog

http://piazzaledonatello.blogspot.com/

Cheers
Cam