9903 Non Catholict Cemetery At Rome/Cimitero Degli Stranieri

I'm just having a wee wander on Google at the moment and found this which people here might know of already.

The Non-Catholic Cemetery in Rome is one of the most beautiful, historically rich and oldest burial grounds in Europe. Known widely as the Protestant Cemetery, even though it contains the graves of Jews and other non-Christians, the Cemetery’s earliest known burial dates back to at least 1738.

The Cemetery came into existence as a burial site for non-Catholics who died whilst in Rome and could not be buried within consecrated ground. The site progressively grew until today where it houses approximately 2,500 graves of people from more than 30 different countries, with gravestone inscriptions in more than 15 languages. Many of the gravestones are themselves works of art.

Several high profile and important people including the poets Shelley and Keats, many painters, sculptors and authors, dozens of diplomats, Goethe's only son, and Antonio Gramsci, a founding father of European Communism, to name a few, have their final resting place in this Cemetery. There are 14 Australians buried in the Cemetery grounds. These include the writer Martin A'Beckett Boyd, former Australian Ambassador Hugh Alexander McClure Smith C.V.O. and the poet Bertram Ronald Whiting.

The Cemetery is governed by a board of 14 Ambassadors from diverse countries who rotate the Presidency. From September 2006 until June 2007 the former Ambassador of Australia, Peter Woolcott, was President of the Cemetery's governing body.

The Cemetery is adjacent to a section of Rome’s ancient Aurelian Wall and the Cestius Pyramid. It was added to the World Monument Fund's 2006 Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites on earth. Your help is needed. The Cemetery recently has launched a new organisation, the Friends of the Non Catholic Cemetery in Rome, whose members contribute directly towards the costs of stone conservation, landscape gardening, visitor aids and essential maintenance. Membership is open to everyone and always welcomed.

For much more information about visiting this historic site and how you can help, or to simply browse the database of graves, visit the website at [url=http://www.protestantcemetery.it/]Protestantcemetery at Rome[/url]