Monumental cemetery of Busto Arsizio, Monumental cemetery in Busto Arsizio, Lombardy, Italy

This cemetery in Busto Arsizio is a burial ground laid out in geometric patterns with private chapels, family mausoleums, and carved stone monuments placed throughout its grounds. The site contains multiple sections designed to accommodate different types of graves and commemorative structures.

The cemetery was inaugurated in 1894, designed by engineer Ercole Seves of Lonate on the model of Carlo Maciachini's Milan cemetery, on land then far from the town at the crossing of the roads to Lonate and Corbetta. About thirty years later the first enlargement, by architect Franco Poggi, almost doubled the surface. The patii area followed in 1971, designed by architect Luigi Ciapparella.

The cemetery reflects how local families chose to commemorate their deceased through elaborate private chapels and personal monuments. Walking through the grounds, you notice different architectural styles reflecting the tastes and means of those who created these spaces over many decades.

The cemetery sits near central Busto Arsizio and is accessed via pathways that wind through the burial grounds between various monuments. Access for people with mobility challenges exists but is limited to certain routes, and visitors should expect uneven surfaces in some areas.

Since 2000, an area behind the church of the Addolorata in the old part of the cemetery has been set aside for the collective burial of fetuses from spontaneous or voluntary abortions, which otherwise would have been disposed of with hospital waste. The cemetery also holds the 1919 edicola Radice and Silvio Gambini's 1908 Castiglioni chapel.