All the cities of our country and the world are different from each other. Different buildings, enterprises, people… But there are places that are found in any more or less large settlement. These are cemeteries. It just so happened that a person is mortal, and he needs the last shelter. There are no tours here. People come to cemeteries to talk with departed loved ones, and informal youth sometimes visit abandoned graves, trying to penetrate the secrets of the other world.
In this article we will talk about several of the largest graveyards in Russia, which, by a strange coincidence, have the same name "Northern Cemetery".
On the pages of the Guinness Book of Records
The first of them is the Northern Cemetery of Rostov-on-Don. Despite the fact that it was founded not so long ago (in 1972), it is one of the largest not only in Russia, but also in Europe, which is why it got into the "Book of Records". There are more than 355,000 graves on an area of 350 hectares.
Relatives of the deceased can bury them traditionally or use the help of the crematorium, honor the memory of loved ones in the Holy Intercession Church-chapel,located on the territory of the churchyard. A bus runs every half an hour for those who come by public transport to the Northern Cemetery. Monuments, graves and tombstones of prestigious quarters are under the lenses of video cameras and are constantly guarded, because everyone knows that our country is “rich” in vandals. And right behind the fence is another cemetery, however, illegal. This is where loving owners bury their pets.
Northern cemetery of Perm
Another one of the largest churchyards in Russia. And also opened not so long ago - in 1982. The scheme of the Northern Cemetery clearly shows that the vast territory of 243 hectares is divided into quarters. They can also be grouped by type, depending on who is buried there. There are Jewish, Gypsy, Muslim, military, children's quarters, the area of those killed in the line of duty, honorary citizens. Separately, areas are also allocated for the burial of unclaimed and unknown people. 28 of the 88 who died in the 2008 plane crash are buried here. Here, a year after it, on September 14, 2009, a memorial to the victims was opened. And soon after that, another tragedy occurred - a fire in the Lame Horse nightclub. Many of those who never came home that night are also buried here.
Necropolis of the Northern Capital
Another Northern Cemetery. Its history is much longer than the two already mentioned. It began in 1875. True, then the cemetery was called the Assumption, as well as a small wooden church. Located in one of the northern suburbs of St. Petersburg(Pargolovo village), it was originally intended for we althy citizens. However, the calculations of the city authorities did not materialize. Basically, not we althy people found their last shelter here. A little later, military lower ranks began to be buried here. And in 1900, the church of Alexander Nevsky was built, where one could hear from time to time the amazing singing of the military choir. The revolution in Russia changed a lot, it did not spare the Northern Cemetery either. Both churches were destroyed, the crypts were plundered, the graves were devastated. The time of the Great Patriotic War became the time of mass graves in this necropolis. Defenders of besieged Leningrad rest in mass graves.
Now the cemetery is active, in 2008 the stone church of the Assumption of the Virgin was erected to replace the first, destroyed one. And among the many modern graves, it is almost impossible to find ancient burials.
