MEMPHIS - From Elvis Presley to Michael Jackson, from Bruce Lee to Walt Disney, from Shakespeare to Queen Isabella of Castile: some celebrities are buried in places that over time have become pilgrimage destinations and tourist attractions.
They are open-air museums, full of charm and testimonies of admirers.
For Halloween or for the weekend celebrating the feast of the dead, Civitatis, an agency specializing in tours and guided visits, has chosen 10 burial places to visit where famous people rest.
Elvis Presley, the king of rock, is buried in Memphis, Tennessee, on the Graceland Mansion estate where the great artist lived the last twenty years of his life. After the singer's death, which occurred in August 1977, his body was taken to the Forest Hills Cemetery of the American city but after an attempted theft the grave was moved to the large residence at number 3734 of the boulevard that today bears his name. By opening Graceland to the public, the singer's family achieved two goals: solving financial problems and creating a unique temple in the world to house Elvis Presley's legacy. Each year 650,000 people visit the site which is also a museum and one of the best musical attractions in the world.
The grave of William Shakespeare, the famous writer and playwright, is located in Stratford-Upon-Avon, his hometown.
In the British town, located on the banks of the River Avon, all the tourist attractions revolve around his most illustrious character: his birthplace, Shakespeare's Schoolroom & Guildhall where he studied and the Holy Trinity cemetery. The great author is buried here, whose epitaph, according to legend, was written by Shakespeare himself.
Michael Jackson's passing in 2009 left the pop music world in shock, but his legacy lives on in music and his fans continue to pay tribute to him year after year. The mortal remains of the king of pop lie in Los Angeles' Forest Lawn Memorial Park, a large gold and silver marble mausoleum, which is a tribute to the singer's extravagant life.
The Lakeview Cemetery on Capitol Hill, Seattle, is a very popular place, especially as it houses the grave of Bruce Lee, the great martial artist and actor. He died at 32 but is still an icon for martial arts and cinema lovers today. Bruce Lee rests next to his son Brandon, who also died at a young age after being accidentally shot while filming a scene from The Crow.
The Royal Chapel of Granada where the Catholic kings, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon are buried, is beautiful and of great historical and artistic importance. Although the Alhambra is the most popular monument in the city, the cathedral is also worth a visit. Inside, the royal chapel, in Gothic style, is a tourist attraction: the tomb houses the tombs of the Catholic monarchs, their heir, Joan I of Castile, and her husband Philip the Beautiful.
The US cemetery at Desert Memorial Park, in Cathedral City, near Palm Springs, welcomes large numbers of tourists in search of Frank Sinatra's grave. The singer, popularly known as "The Voice", rests under an epitaph that reads "the best is yet to come". A popular legend tells that the singer was buried with a bottle of whiskey and a carton of cigarettes.
The grave of Bob Marley, the singer who popularized reggae music around the world, is one of Jamaica's top tourist attractions and is located in St. Ann's mausoleum in Nine Mile, the village where the legendary songwriter was born like No woman, no cry, Is this love and Redemption Song. Since May 11, 1981, when the famous Jamaican musician died in Miami, the tomb has become a must for tourist visits and pilgrimages of enthusiasts from all over the world. Walter Elias Disney, the famous cartoonist and film producer, rests in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery, where Michael Jackson's grave is also located. For a long time it was thought that he had been hibernated but in reality the remains of the famous director were cremated. L'origin of the myth may be due to a statement by the director of the former California Cryogenic Society, who claimed that Walt wanted to be frozen after his death.
The assassination of US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1963 shocked the world and threw an aura of mystery about the murder; since then the place where his remains lie has become one of the most visited tombs in the world. Many tourists go to Washington DC to visit Arlington National Cemetery, the largest military cemetery in the country, where the president rests next to his wife Jacqueline and 400,000 soldiers, veterans of wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan and of the First and Second World Wars.
Jim Morrison, unforgettable frontman of The Doors band, is buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, along with other singers like Edith Piaf and painters like Max Ernst.
The American rock star's grave is the most visited in the cemetery, a place where his fans, even half a century after his death, continue to pay homage to the charismatic rock star.
(HANDLE).
