Cimitero Monumentale di San Michele

Venice’s monumental cemetery occupies the island of San Michele. Its grounds include a cemetery laid out to Giannantonio Selva’s design, the Renaissance church of San Michele in Isola by Mauro Codussi, and the graves of figures including Igor Stravinsky, Ezra Pound and Joseph Brodsky.

Why it matters

In 1807, Venice chose the neighbouring island of San Cristoforo della Pace for a new cemetery, following Napoleon’s 1804 Edict of Saint-Cloud, issued principally on grounds of hygiene. Selva’s design was completed in 1813. San Michele, formerly the site of a Camaldolese monastery, passed to the municipality in 1810 after the Napoleonic suppression of religious houses. A canal between the islands was filled between 1835 and 1839, and the cemetery’s unification works were completed by 1876. The cemetery, monastery and church were declared of cultural interest in 2013.

What to notice

The Renaissance church of San Michele in Isola, built by Mauro Codussi and his workshop between 1468 and 1477, stands beside the cemetery grounds. Its brick bell tower dates to 1456; the Emiliani chapel, designed by Guglielmo De Grigi, dates to 1527. The grounds include Greek Orthodox and Protestant enclosures. Igor Stravinsky, buried in the Orthodox section, lies near Sergei Diaghilev; Ezra Pound is buried in the Protestant section, and Joseph Brodsky is also buried on the island.

Context and history

After the canal was filled, Annibale Forcellini’s plan extended the cemetery; the unification works were substantially complete by 1876. A later expansion followed the 1998–2000 competition won by David Chipperfield. Its new courtyards, including the Corte dei Quattro Evangelisti, opened in 2007. Since 2019, a temporary floating bridge of about twenty modules has been installed each year from Fondamente Nove for the Commemoration of the Dead. Coffins continue to arrive by boat.