From the roots to Heaven
Cementiris de Barcelona and the Institut Botànic are organising a Funeral Botany Route through Montjuïc Cemetery.
What are the most common plants and trees in the cemeteries? What is the meaning of their presence in enclosures like these? They will talk about all these things during a Route of Funerary Botany that invites you to see the Cementiri de Montjuïc in a different way: through the plants that live there. They are waiting for you on Sunday, 27 April.
The activity is organised by Cementiris de Barcelona, responsible for managing the city's burial grounds, and the Institut Botànic de Barcelona, a centre run by the Consell Superior d'Investigacions Científiques (CSIC) and the Consorci Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona.
An expert on the subject will take you on a tour of the cemetery and then talk about Principis de botànica funerària, a work published in 1885 by the Barcelona lawyer and writer Celestí Barallat. It is one of the main contributions to the configuration of the ideal landscaped cemetery. The work contains great botanical knowledge, but also a great deal of classical knowledge and symbology.
Here, following in the footsteps of this author, we are told about a plant world that, seen through human eyes, takes on new meanings. Beyond the cypress that sticks its roots into the ground to project itself towards the sky, you will discover why in a cemetery you will find specific plants and not others.
However, vegetation does not only grow from the ground, but is also manifested, in stone, in many pantheons and funerary sculptures that are part of the Cementiri de Montjuïc and which, in this case too, have a decorative aspect, but also convey a message or express a hope.
If you want to discover the plant side of a funerary enclosure, don't miss the guided tour Ruta de la botànica funerària,, but first check the Cementiris de Barcelona website for all the information about the activity and buy your ticket.