Cimitero delle Porte Sante (The Sacred Doors Cemetery) is a monumental cemetery in Florence located within the fortified bastion of the Basilica of San Miniato al Monte.

History

The idea of a burial site near San Miniato was conceived around 1837, although the camposanto was inaugurated eleven years later, in 1848.

The project, originally entrusted to architect Niccolò Matas (the author of the facade of the Basilica of Santa Croce), was enlarged and in 1864 Mariano Falcini used the area of the sixteenth-century fortress lying around the church.

The project of the new cemetery grew parallel with the development of the new road network, elaborated by Poggi, which, with the opening of the Colli Boulevard and the monumental staircase, created new ways to access the basilica.

Notable tombs

In addition to many neo-Gothic architectural features, the cemetery holds the burial sites of many illustrious figures, including:

• Giuseppe Abbati
• Libero Andreotti
• Pietro Annigoni
• Pellegrino Artusi
• Lazar Berman
• Luigi Bertelli (Vamba)
• Alessandro Bonsanti
• Mario Cecchi Gori (with his wife Valeria)
• Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi
• Alimondo Ciampi
• Bruno Cicognani
• Carlo Collodi
• Enrico Coveri
• Felice Le Monnier
• Claudio Leonardi
• Guido Manacorda
• Ferruccio Masini
• Lorenzo Orsetti
• Giovanni Papini
• Marietta Piccolomini
• Ermenegildo Pistelli
• Paolo Poli
• Vasco Pratolini
• Rodolfo Marma
• Renzo Ricci
• Brass Roses
• Bruno Rossi
• Gaetano Salvemini
• Tommaso Salvini
• Giorgio Saviane
• Odoardo Spadaro
• Giovanni Spadolini
• Angelo Torchi
• Luigi Ugolini
• Pasquale Villari