Of DP
Product of the nineteenth century, enlightened and romantic at the same time, since 1867, the Municipal Cemetery of Orvieto offers its citizens “that extreme public service that combines time and memory in a comforting environment of Nature and humanized Landscape“. It owes its layout to the pontifical architect Virginio Vespignani and the surveyor Vincenzo Mancini. The engineer Paolo Zampi was responsible for the expansion carried out at the end of the 19th century, while the expansion completed in 1986 was inspired by the project of the archistar Massimiliano Fuksas, the subject in 2016 of a conference promoted by the Orvieto Historical Artistic Institute preparatory to the visit with entry into the most interesting chapels and readings of passages by the writers who are buried here, organized by the FAI Orvieto Group.
“In the perspective tangle of cypresses” emerges, in fact, the multitude of family chapels adorned with works but also a treasure that awaits to shine again like the Church of San Lorenzo in Vineis. Sculptures, paintings, engravings, ceramics and mosaics which, taken together, have contributed to form a sample of nineteenth-twentieth century art of not only local importance, boasting among others a very rare work by Filippo Severati such as “The Portrait of the Mazzocchi Spouses” are listed in the volume “The Monumental Cemetery of Orvieto. The Works of Art” by Aldo Lo Presti (Intermedia, 2013). It focuses on the expansion by Studio Fuksas, the visit scheduled for Sunday 21 April to 4pm. Thirty places available.
Even deprived of religious connotations and mannered literary references to “I Sepolcri” by Foscolo or to the Spoon River Anthology, the walk among the tombstones of more or less illustrious people who rest in the holy field at the foot of the Rock, moving new forms of respectful and respectable necro-tourism, is placed within the regional project “Contemporary Archipelago. Islands of twentieth century architecture in Umbria“, created thanks to the collaboration of the FAI Youth Groups of Perugia and Terni and the FAI Groups of Assisi and Orvieto and structured around a cycle of events aimed at raising awareness and transmitting the contemporary Umbrian architectural heritage, through visits to urban sites and built architectural works between the twentieth century and today.
In Assisi the epicenter of the visit was the former Montedison, an area located on the eastern outskirts of Santa Maria degli Angeli, in an area characterized by a sparsely built-up context and mainly made up of residential buildings, with the exception of some industrial plants located close to the railroad. In Terni, however, we walked from Piazza Buozzi to the railway station, in search of urban nodes and regeneration in the city of steel. In Perugia, however, stop in Piazza del Bacio. In Orvieto, however, as mentioned, the reborn FAI Group offers a visit to the Cemetery. The event – with a minimum contribution and online booking – is open to all and lasts approximately 45 minutes. The meeting point is in the car park in the upper square. Participants are recommended comfortable footwear.
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Tags: Visit expansion Municipal Cemetery Contemporary Archipelago Islands Twentieth Century Architecture Umbria
