A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph . A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb , or the tomb may be considered to be within the mausoleum.
6-537: The Mausoleo Schilizzi (Schilizzi Mausoleum), also known as the Mausoleum of Posillipo or Ara Votiva per i Caduti della Patria is a monumental mausoleum built in the 1880s in a Neo-Egyptian style. It is located at Posillipo , Naples, and overlooks the bay from atop a hillside. The Mausoleum was commissioned by the wealthy banker Matteo Schilizzi as a mausoleum to be placed in the Cemetery of Poggioreale , and
12-469: A burial chamber either wholly above ground or within a burial vault below the superstructure. This contains the body or bodies, probably within sarcophagi or interment niches. Modern mausolea may also act as columbaria (a type of mausoleum for cremated remains) with additional cinerary urn niches. Mausolea may be located in a cemetery , a churchyard or on private land. In the United States ,
18-735: The Ancient Greek : μαυσωλεῖον ) derives from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (near modern-day Bodrum in Turkey), the grave of King Mausolus , the Persian satrap of Caria , whose large tomb was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World . Mausolea were historically, and still may be, large and impressive constructions for a deceased leader or other person of importance. However, smaller mausolea soon became popular with
24-585: The gentry and nobility in many countries. In the Roman Empire , these were often in necropoles or along roadsides: the via Appia Antica retains the ruins of many private mausolea for kilometres outside Rome . When Christianity became dominant, mausolea were out of use. Later, mausolea became particularly popular in Europe and its colonies during the early modern and modern periods . A single mausoleum may be permanently sealed. A mausoleum encloses
30-462: The designs were by Alfonso Guerra . By the 1920s, the building was bought by the municipality, moved to the present site, and to serve as a mausoleum for soldiers and patriots. The work was completed by Alfonso's son, Camillo. The Caryatids at the entrance are by Giovanni Battista Amendola . 40°48′19″N 14°12′07″E / 40.805370°N 14.201954°E / 40.805370; 14.201954 Mausoleum The word mausoleum (from
36-538: The term may be used for a burial vault below a larger facility, such as a church. The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, California, for example, has 6,000 sepulchral and cinerary urn spaces for interments in the lower level of the building. It is known as the "crypt mausoleum". In Europe, these underground vaults are sometimes called crypts or catacombs . A chapel mausoleum or mausoleum chapel in
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