Architects: Carlo Scarpa Photography: Trevor Patt Construction Period: 1968-1970 Location: San Vito d’Altivole, Italy
From the village, the site is approached through a private entrance: here is the church, where funeral services are held, the village cemetery, and here is the chapel – this is accessible to the public because the ground belongs to the estate. The family has the right only to be buried there. A private path leads to the little pavilion on the water – the only really private areal on the site. This is basically all there is.
This place of death is little like a garden. Incidentally, the great American cemeteries of the nineteenth century, in Chicago, for example, are extensive parks. No Napoleonic tomb, no! You can drive in with your car. There are beautiful monuments, for instance, those by Louis Henry Sullivan. Cemeteries now have become mere piled-up shoe boxes, one on top of the other. I wanted to express the naturalness of water and meadow, of water and earth. Water is the source of life.
Description by the architect.
