A silent island that, with the charm of yesteryear, stands amidst the traffic of the ring road avenues: this is how the so-called "Cemetery of the English" could be defined.
Its official name, “Protestant Cemetery of Porta a' Pinti”, recalls the context in which it arose in 1827: immediately outside the gate of the same name and that section of the ancient circle (designed at the end of the thirteenth century by Arnolfo di Cambio) both demolished at the time of Florence Capital to make way for the new “boulevards.” This mound-shaped piece of land was acquired by the Evangelical Reformed Church (Switzerland) to provide a fitting burial place for Florence's Protestant community. The appellation “of the English” comes from the conspicuous number of graves of Anglo-Saxon cultural figures.
The most famous burials are those of: Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the famous British poetess who chose Florence as her adopted home (Casa Guidi, her house-museum can still be visited in Piazza San Felice), Walter Savage Landor, the Trollopes, physician Thomas Southwood Smith; also dense the number of U.S. abolitionists, such as Theodore Parker and Hiram Powers, the latter author of the sculpture the 'Greek Slave'; not far away is buried Nadezdha (Hope), a black slave adopted by an Orthodox family (the Orthodox cross stands on the marble of her tomb, a sign of her liberation).
Linked to the figure of Swiss painter Arnold Boecklin-whose very young daughter was buried here in a now-lost tomb-is this place, the source of inspiration for his masterpiece, The Isle of the Dead. Of Swiss origin, but born in Italy, was also Jean Pierre Vieusseux, a great animator of culture, and in particular of Italian literature. In 1877 - as a result of the urban planning revolution of Capital Florence and the law that decreed 100 meters as the minimum distance of cemeteries from the town center - this cemetery was closed, and immediately afterwards the Cimitero agli Allori opened.
The English Cemetery is one of the monumental cemeteries of Florence.
Cimitero degli Inglesi
Piazzale Donatello, 38, 50132 Firenze FI, Italia
Not accessible for the disabled: there are 9 steps to reach the gate; inside, the path is very steep and consists of gravel. Outside the cemetery the pavement is uneven and mostly unusable.
