English Cemetery

          Aside from the Jewish Cemetery in Prague, I happened to visit two other cemeteries this past month, the English Cemetery and the Cimitero della Porte Sante, both located in Florence. The English Cemetry dates back to the early 1800s when non-Catholics and non-Jews who died in Florence could not be buried within the city walls. In 1827 the Swiss Evangelical Reformed Church bought land outside the medieval wall and gate of Porta a' Pinti at Florence from Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany for an international and ecumenical cemetery, Russian and Greek Orthodox burials joining the Protestant ones. Among the many Swiss, Russians, Americans and British buried here, those of the English-speaking British and Americans are the majority as the Anglophone community in Florence in the nineteenth century was the largest. 

When I visited the English Cemetery, I met with Sister Julia, the caretaker of this beloved cemetery. She explained how this cemetery was almost abandoned and beyond depressing before money was put into the restoration of the cemetery a few decades ago. While I was walking around the cemetery, I stopped at a tombstone that stuck out for me. The tombstone was in the shape of a large bathtub with many Latin inscriptions written all over the outside of the marble tombstone. Below this tombstone was the grave of the famous English poet and novelist Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Sister Julia explained to me how Robert Browning, another famous English poet and the husband of Elizabeth, designed Elizabeth’s tomb and made sure that the tombstone was to be polished and preserved every year. And for the next twenty years he spent most of his money preserving his beloved Elizabeth’s tomb. Again, just as I felt while I was walking around the Jewish Cemetery, learning about the history of the tombstones in that graveyard, I was full of joy and hope. I hoped that one-day my family, friends, and other loved ones would care for me after my passing the way Robert Browning did for his wife, Elizabeth.