English Cemetery

A quiet island with the charm of another age, rising above the traffic of the ring roads: this is one way to describe the so-called English Cemetery. Its official name, the Protestant Cemetery of Porta a’ Pinti, recalls its origins in 1827, just outside the gate of that name and the adjoining stretch of the ancient walls designed by Arnolfo di Cambio in the late 13th century. Both were demolished when Florence was Italy’s capital to make room for the new boulevards. The Swiss Reformed Evangelical Church acquired this small hill to provide a dignified burial place for Florence’s Protestant community. The name “English” comes from the many graves of figures from English-speaking culture. Among the best-known burials are the British poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who chose Florence as her adopted home—her house-museum, Casa Guidi, can still be visited in Piazza San Felice—Walter Savage Landor, members of the Trollope family and the physician Thomas Southwood Smith. American abolitionists are also well represented, including Theodore Parker and Hiram Powers, sculptor of The Greek Slave. Nearby lies Nadezdha, or Hope, an enslaved Black woman adopted by an Orthodox family; the Orthodox cross above her marble grave marks her liberation. The cemetery is associated with Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin, whose young daughter was buried here in a grave now lost. It inspired his masterpiece, Isle of the Dead. Jean Pierre Vieusseux, a leading figure in cultural life and particularly Italian literature, was also of Swiss origin, though born in Italy. In 1877, following the urban transformation of Florence as capital and a law requiring cemeteries to be at least 100 metres from inhabited areas, this cemetery closed. The Allori Cemetery opened immediately afterwards. Watch the short film Un’isola in mezzo all’orizzonte, dedicated to the English Cemetery. It offers a different introduction to this extraordinary place by giving voice to some of those buried here and to messages that often remain surprisingly relevant.