Rome's 'Protestant Cemetery', where
English Romantic poets Keats and Shelley are buried along with
Marxist writer Antonio Gramsci and many other prominent
non-Catholics like cult crime writer Andrea Camilleri and
two-time ex-Communist Italian president Giorgio Napolitano, has
been closed due to safety concerns after one of its monumental
pine trees fell down.
A crowdfunding drive has been launched to help reopen the
Cimitero Acattolico per gli Stranieri di Roma, in the working
class Testaccio quarter of the Italian capital, after the ruins
of the mighty tree are removed and the graves it hit are
repaired.
"We ask all visitors to understand the situation," said the
graveyard's director, Yvonne A. Mazurek.
"All our efforts are aimed at reopening this beloved place as
soon as possible, trying to do so in a way that guarantees the
best future for both the urban forest and the monuments that it
welcomes and surrounds".
Other famed occupants of the 'a-Catholic' site are Beat poet
Gregory Corso, Italian poet Dario Bellezza, novelist Carlo
Emilio Gadda, British dancer Lindsay Kemp, British actress
Belinda Lee, and nuclear physicist Bruno Pontecorvo.
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