Capri is a world famous resort, the playground for jet setters. It’s an ancient Roman island in Southern Italy still peppered with the villas of Emperors. I’ve heard it called the Beverly Hills of Italy because of its luxury boutiques and grand dame hotels.
To me, Capri is about the quiet moments, the local back streets, the flora and fauna and places like the beautiful, very off the beaten path 19th century non-catholic cemetery. The cemetery is in a residential, slightly run down section between Capri town and the Marina Grande but it overlooks the sea and is incredibly charming. Artists, writers, Anglo Saxons, Nordics and French in love with Capri are all buried here. There are Jewish graves and non-religious tombs and plenty of Madonna statues. And in modern Capri, plenty of Catholic Italians choose this idyllic spot with a sweeping view of the Tyrrhenian Sea for their final resting places.
I walked to the cemetery on the rather harrowing, not very pedestrian “old road down to Marina Grande” and found the graveyard after a ten minute “stroll” sidestepping uncomfortably close vespas, cars and buses like a veteran Italian. When in Rome, eh? You may want to take a taxi from the bus station in Capri Town.
Ask for the Cimitero acattolico di Capri. On Capri – not the pretty, much smaller catholic cemetery on Ana Capri – though that is also lovely. This is the spot with character and history and angels.
all photographs were shot on portra 400 and 800 – 35mm film and are copyright rebecca price butler – alovelettertorome.com – retrofocus@mac.com
I took a lot of shots in this magical spot and will be posting more soon!
Beautiful and poetic images, Rebecca! Looking forward to more photos from the series.
Magical. Thanks for the visit.
Thank YOU!
hey, thanks for these Rebecca. They are super. what an amazing setting for a graveyard, and beautiful sense of light too.
I’m feeling slightly excited so can I show you my own cemetery pictures too?
They’re from the famous Ricoletta in Buenos Aires, where some of the memorial sculpture is famously, extravagantly lavish. It was a dullish day, so my pictures don’t have the same lovely light as yours, but you may like the commentary. Enjoy it if you view.
very best regards from Dublin- Arran.
http://arranqhenderson.com/2012/04/02/l1020087/
Thank you! I am so excited to see your shots! Clicking now!!!
Breathtaking,makes you think maybe death is not that bad
Reblogged this on a love letter to rome.
Wonderful photos! I visited the acatolico cemetery on a hot July day a few years ago. I didn’t see, in your photos, the gravestone of one of my favourite writers, Norman Douglas. A line from Horace, “Omnes Eodem Cogimur,” was his only epitaph; “We are all gathered in the same place”.
Wondering in some streets towards the peak ridge of the island, I came across an abandoned path twisting around a cliff above the sea. Following it along, I found an abandoned WW2 artillery post, 1940s graffiti and all. Trying to bust my way out of the restricted area, I somehow stumbled onto the spectacular Via Krupp, whose torturously labyrinthine path doesn’t seem so spectacular to the inordinately thirsty.
Krupp had the distinction of leading a very dubiously interesting life on Capri, but that’s a story for another time…
I love this