A vertical difference of 9 meters separates the current cemetery from the site further down the hillside chosen for the expansion. Unstable soil required plans to call for the use of pilings, retaining walls, etc. ...: adding even more concrete to an area already at its limit of consolidation.

The project seeks to reconcile the story of death with the need to preserve an area for life.

This is how the wall - the wall of the dead - is set up. With its three-level system of chapels and burial niches, it is arranged in a way to contain the embankment. The wall allows the dead to be buried along a path that, while constructing a retaining wall to protect the living, is anchored in their memory.

Beyond the wall, the field is left open to become a garden. Through the field runs a river which is crossed by a bridge connecting the wall of the dead with the ossuary: a meteor of white stone shooting skyward.
The earthen wall is a tangible sign of the bond between the project and the site. Built on a 9-based module, it reaches a total length of 270 metres setting itself up as an organisational element that establishes a boundary at the edge of the landscape: a territory that marks the border between life and death.
The wall opens up towards the landscape, creating new lines of perspective.
The wall of the dead is in the landscape like silence.
Thus the need to address a religion traditionally linked to family chapels is reconciled with notion, in both a Christian and secular sense, of returning to think about death as the moment of collective reflection.

Adapted from a text by Lucio Rosato


The wall of the dead, expansion of the cemetery in Francavilla al Mare (Chieti)

Design: Lúcio Rosato
Ermano Flacco
Sandro Antonucci

Construction: 2001/2003