The Cemetery

 

In the States we are accustomed to seeing sprawling cemeteries that take up enormous tracts of land, especially in rural Southern hamlets, where the living population seems to be dwarfed by acres and acres of the departed.  The cemetery in Vourliotes is a modest, but immaculately tended, quarter acre plot of land at the west end of the village.  It is surrounded by a stuccoed stone fence, with a domed chapel just inside the ungated entrance.  The chapel is flanked by a low, flat roofed building, about the size of a one car garage, which could easily be mistaken for a caretakers shed.  It is an ossuary.

photos by Newell

Living space is at a premium here.  What is not used for human habitation has been given over to agricultural use.  It is the custom then, for the dead to be placed into small above ground crypts of nicely finished marble, for several years, to decompose. The bones are then removed, placed in a much smaller box, and stored in the ossuary.  I don’t think that there is any artificial (electric) lighting in the building, but it is constantly lit by dozens of little lamp candles that burn day and night.

Instead of headstones, most of the crypts are topped, at the head, with little glass enclosures that have sliding panels so that surviving family members can leave pictures, personal items, packs of cigarettes, or refill the little olive oil lamps inside them.

The graves all face East, so sunlight reflects off of the white marble with an unnatural brilliance in the morning.  In the evening, the marble reflects the pink glow of the setting sun; and at night, there are only the tiny flickering pinpoints of candle light to punctuate the cool darkness.  It is a very quiet and peaceful place.

The chapel



Inside the ossuary