Bellefontaine Cemetery |
On a crisp fall morning in mid October several members of the O'Fallon photography club took a trip out to Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum in St. Louis. This historic old cemetery was a wonderful place to explore and take photographs.
History
The Bellefontaine Cemetery has been in operation since 1849 and contains over 160 years of history. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The cemetery contains the graves of many of the men and women who shaped the history and culture of St. Louis. To find out more about the people who have graves and mausoleums at Bellefontaine you can click on this link to their website. Bellefontaine Cemetery There are brief life stories of many of the influential people who are in the cemetery as well as a detailed history of the cemetery through the years. Before the 19th century cemeteries were mostly in church yards. When Bellefontaine was first started there was a movement to provide peaceful parklike settings for burial places.
Architecture
The architecture and art in Bellefontaine Cemetery is truly amazing. There are many different types of architecture including Classic Revival, Romanesque, Gothic, Egyptian Revival as well as mausoleums and statues with Western influence. The first mausoleum in the photograph below is one that was constructed in 1921 and is an elaborate Gothic Revival style. The details on it are truly beautiful. You can't tell from the photo, but when I looked in the front doors I saw beautiful stained glass windows on three walls.
You can see from the next three photos that there are a wide variety of different styles of mausoleums at the cemetery.
There were also many statues throughout the cemetery. A lot were of angels and crosses were carved into many of the stones.
There were beautiful features in the windows of many of the mausoleums. Above you see a stained glass window and below is a photo I took from inside one of the mausoleums. I really liked the details on the window.
There were also many statues throughout the cemetery. A lot were of angels and crosses were carved into many of the stones.
There were beautiful features in the windows of many of the mausoleums. Above you see a stained glass window and below is a photo I took from inside one of the mausoleums. I really liked the details on the window.
Nature
Bellefontaine is also an arboretum that has over 500 trees and woody shrubs throughout its 314 acres. These come from over 200 different species and when we visited in mid October some of the leaves had turned and others were still green. This made for a beautiful mix of colors among the old stone tombstones and mausoleums.
We walked around the cemetery taking photographs for over 2 hours and only saw about 25% of the area. I'm looking forward to going back and exploring more. It was truly an interesting place.
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