Melatenfriedhof (part 1)
I'm currently editing the photos I took at Cologne's Melatenfriedhof last month. As you'll discover for yourself, I took rather a lot of them -- about a hundred, I think, most of which turned out well enough that I could easily spend the next two months posting a cemetery pic a day without ever showing the same photo twice. I won't do that to you, though. I know not everyone shares my graveyard fetish, so I'll frequently relieve the tombstone-and-angel monotony with "regular" travel photos.
A bit of background history for the curious among you...
The Melatenfriedhof is Cologne's largest and most famous cemetery. It's been a place of death for centuries; in the Middle Ages, criminals and suspected witches were put to death there, and later it served as a burial place to a leper asylum which stood on the premises. In 1810, Napoleon issued a law declaring that dead people were no longer to be buried within the city walls, as this was unhygienic. From then on, Cologne's dead were no longer buried in churches and churchyards, as had been the custom until then, but rather in a large park outside the city walls -- the former execution spot, which was stripped of its leper buildings to make room for the graves. The new cemetery was called the Melatenfriedhof, after the French word for "ill", malade.
These days, the Melatenfriedhof is a bit of a tourist attraction, where those so inclined can take guided tours, much like the ones organised at Père Lachaise and Highgate. Being a predominantly Catholic cemetery, it is full of spectacularly ornate tombs and mausoleums, angel statues, Jesus and Mary statues and the like. Most of these are well maintained, but every now and then you'll come across delightfully mossy graves, overgrown statues, and the odd angel which lost a wing during the 1942 bombing of Cologne. With branches obscuring the view and tall trees robbing the place of light, it's not always easy to take good photographs of them, but I flatter myself I got some good shots.
I'll start with a bunch of black and whites. Later on I'll show you the colour photos I took. Hopefully you'll enjoy both.
Cologne, Germany, 2005