Istituzione dei cimiteri comunali a Firenze: Trespiano e le Porte Sante

The cemetery in Trespiano, located 6.5K from Florence, was created in 1784 by the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo in order to persuade the citizens to give up the unhealthy habit of burying their dead in the urban cemeteries. But up to the second half of the 19th century only the bodies of poor people were buried in the cemetery in Trespiano, while those of rich people continued to be buried in the old cemeteries. The cemetery of Porte Sante was created in 1854 within the Romanesque Basilica of San Miniato al Monte, and on the grounds adjacent to it, and from the very beginning, it was considered elitist and monumental. Between 1866 and 1877, the town council of Florence proposed closing all the urban cemeteries and building a new one on the grounds around the Charterhouse of Galluzzo, but in the end, because of strong opposition, it was decided to improve and to expand the cemetery in Trespiano, which has remained the principal cemetery in the city up to the present date.;

Graziella Cirri, Istituzione dei cimiteri comunali a Firenze: Trespiano e le Porte Sante in "STORIA URBANA " 92/2000, pp , DOI: