Map of Cemetery
How to orient yourself at the Cemetery
General overview
The Non-Catholic Cemetery in Rome is divided into five main Zones. Most of the graves in the cemetery are usually arranged in numbered rows, but some graves like those in the Old Cemetery (Parte Antica), mark an exception to this general rule.
The zones are marked with their names, while the rows have numbers posted at the beginning of every other path. The Cemetery’s administration is aware that some paths are missing numbers and are gradually replacing them. Thank you for your patience while we complete this project.
The Cemetery's five main zones
If visitors turn left when entering the Cemetery, you will find yourself in front of the Visitors’ Centre. The Old Cemetery (also called the Parte Antica) is located behind this building and can be reached by going through an opening in the former boundary wall. The grounds are flat and relatively accessible. Feel free to rest on the benches here, soaking in the peaceful atmosphere. Please do not walk on the graves.
As the name suggests, this is the oldest part of the Cemetery, but it is no longer used for new burials. It looks out over the Pyramid of Caius Cestius, dating back to the Emperor Augustus.
The ascent to the top of the Zona Vecchia is rather steep. Mind your step as the ground may be slippery and uneven due to tree roots.
The earliest tombs in this area date back to the early 1800s like that of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Nearby the Romantic poet’s tomb, you can visit the iconic funerary monument known as the Angel of Grief.
The First Zone is the Cemetery’s largest and was created in the second and third quarters of the 19th century when the city authorities granted an extension to the Cemetery. The paths can be narrow and visitors should mind the tree roots.
Perhaps the best known graves here commemorate August von Goethe, the son of the German writer, Wolfgang Goethe, and the former Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.
The Second Zone is cut in two by a rather steep, diagonal path leading up to the sculpture of Psyche next to the Aurelian Walls.
In the ossuary set within the city walls, visitors can pay tribute to some of the foreigners who fought with Garibaldi in the Risorgimento: Arthur Bennj, a Polish journalist, Bartolomeo Rozat from Switzerland and the Englishman John Scholey. Nearby, a stately obelisk marks the tomb of the Norwegian historian Peter Andreas Munch, uncle of the famous artist Edvard.
The Third Zone is characterized by a slightly different layout than the others, being divided into four squares called riquadri. The slope is much flatter than in other areas, but visitors are asked to be careful of tree roots that have appeared between certain trees and tombs.
It was created soon after 1894, when the German Embassy purchased this plot of land to build its Chapel and to make room for more graves. The best-known graves in this area are those of Sicilian writer Andrea Camilleri and Sardinian-born political philosopher Antonio Gramsci.
