Malthus's Morbid Monuments

[Valmy]

I don't know. Europe tends to dig up their cemeteries every so often. Unless you were rich and important your grave is probably long gone.

Or maybe it is just France who does that.

[Malthus]

I don't know. Europe tends to dig up their cemeteries every so often. Unless you were rich and important your grave is probably long gone.

Or maybe it is just France who does that.

I suppose it depends on where - in Winchester, there were some truly ancient graves to see in the graveyard. Also, in the Cathedrals, lots of ancient monuments.

[alfred russel]

Also, in the Cathedrals, lots of ancient monuments.

When I was young and naïve, I thought that Notre Dame in Paris was the best cathedral because it wasn't cluttered up with lots of old monuments and memorials etc like a lot of other cathedrals in europe. Then I found out it used to be, but the French Revolution cleaned them out.

The French Revolution: spring cleaning for Catholic churches.

[Valmy]

Yeah it could be just France. They have these bone pits or ossuaries where they will dump the old bones after awhile once people stop visiting the grave. The Paris catacombs has rooms and rooms of ancient human remains that once filled the cemeteries of Paris. I just figured that made a ton of sense in a country as densely populated and old as France and figured it must be common in Europe but maybe not.

[Valmy]

Also, in the Cathedrals, lots of ancient monuments.

When I was young and naïve, I thought that Notre Dame in Paris was the best cathedral because it wasn't cluttered up with lots of old monuments and memorials etc like a lot of other cathedrals in europe. Then I found out it used to be, but the French Revolution cleaned them out.

The French Revolution: spring cleaning for Catholic churches.

And whatever the Revolution did not clean out the Communards burned

[The Brain]

A standard grave in Sweden typically gets recycled after a few decades if there's no one who keeps paying for it. Many graveyards are 500-900 years old, you're not gonna get a virgin spot (sometimes they get extended sure, you could get lucky). Now just because a grave gets reused doesn't mean you toss the stone, you can often find old stones collected in a corner of the graveyard. Graves that are somehow significant tend to be kept undisturbed but I don't know the exact typical mechanism for this.

[Malthus]

Not really a *morbid* monument, but interesting nonetheless -- this series of balanced rocks someone put in the Humber river, in Etienne Brule park, near my house in Toronto (took while out walking with the family).

[Malthus]

Out for an evening stroll in the local cemetery, we saw a lot of wildlife: several rabbits, a coyote slinking across the path, and a flock of deer. Only the last stayed put long enough to take a few pictures, though at extreme zoom at twilight they are a bit grainy:

[Syt]

Nice. You can observe wildlife on the Vienna main cemetery (Zentralfriedhof), too. It's basically a huge park area.

[Maladict]

Yeah it could be just France. They have these bone pits or ossuaries where they will dump the old bones after awhile once people stop visiting the grave. The Paris catacombs has rooms and rooms of ancient human remains that once filled the cemeteries of Paris. I just figured that made a ton of sense in a country as densely populated and old as France and figured it must be common in Europe but maybe not.

Here it's typically the more recent ones that get cleaned out. Cemetery plots aren't sold anymore, but rented out.
When the lease (typically 20 years) lapses and the family doesn't respond, the grave is removed and the contents placed in a pit.
Old, monumental tombs are typically left alone.

One town council recently floated the idea of covering an existing, but full, cemetery with 10 feet of earth and starting a new one on top.

[Malthus]

Nice. You can observe wildlife on the Vienna main cemetery (Zentralfriedhof), too. It's basically a huge park area.

Apparently, in Ontario, wolves are hybridizing with the local coyote population, leading them to get much larger ... and they have made their way to Toronto. So we can look forward to packs of Coywolves haunting our cemeteries, making a visit potentially more lively. 

https://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episodes/meet-the-coywolf

The one I saw, alas, looked like a standard coyote.

[HVC]

a coywolf makes me thing of the wolf from little red riding hood

[Malthus]

Now, the last sentence on this headstone is subject to ... several possible meanings. 

[The Minsky Moment]

Out for an evening stroll in the local cemetery, we saw a lot of wildlife: several rabbits, a coyote slinking across the path, and a flock of deer.:

I get deer and rabbits in the yard all the time.  I'm sure they are all over the local cemeteries.

[Valmy]

Now, the last sentence on this headstone is subject to ... several possible meanings. 

This Saturday Night Live fake ad from the 1980s answers that question succinctly:

https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/where-youre-going/n9370