One of the Tombstones in the Monumental Cimitero degli Inglesi in Via VerdiKnown in Livorno as the Cimitero degli Inglesi, or the English Cemetery, the monumental cemetery in Via Verdi dates from the 1640s and is the oldest of its kind in the whole of Italy. The people buried in the cemetery were protestants of various nationalities who were living or staying in Livorno during the 17th, 18th and first part of the 19th century.  In 1840 the cemetery was closed down following the expansion of the city walls, and a new ‘English’ cemetery was opened outside the walls (Via Pera).

Some of the Tombs bear beautiful Sculptures, like this one.Many of the people buried here were merchants in Livorno during the time of great expansion of the city as a cosmopolitan port. Others were brought to Livorno to be buried from Pisa and Florence, since Livorno’s protestant cemetery existed long before the Florentine one. There are many British tombs, but also those of French huguenots, Germans, Swiss and Americans. Several American marines are buried here.
Tobias Smollett's tombstoneThe most famous figure to be buried in the old cemetery in Via Verdi, Livorno, is the Scottish writer Tobias Smollett who died in 1771. He had been staying in Livorno for health reasons.

If you are interested in old graveyards of any kind, this one is well worth a visit. Despite war damage and neglect, it is still a place of peace in the middle of the city of Livorno. It is interesting just to wander around and look at the inscriptions, imagining the lives of these people in the foreign city of Livorno all that time ago.

Some names in the cemetery: (there are about 450 tombs in all).

Tobias Smollett – Scottish writer (d. 1771)
Leonard Digges – the oldest tombstone in Livorno’s English cemetery (d. 1646)
Robert Bateman – English merchant, donated money to have railings erected around the cemetery  (d. 1743)
John Corne – Commander of the Prince of Wales (d. 1718)
George Renner – German merchant in Livorno, friend of Tobias Smollett
Francis Harriman – member of the British Factory, the association of British merchants in Livorno (d. 1763)
George Jackson – collector of manuscripts and merchant (d. 1763)
Thomas Hall – American (Philadelphia) chaplain to the British Factory in Livorno for forty years (d. 1824)
John Webb – English merchant and banker (d. 1829)
Francis Horner – Scottish member of the British parliament, died in Pisa in 1817 at only 39 years of age.
Mary Lane (d. 1790) – the epitaph on her tomb inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - when he visited the cemetery in 1828 - to write his poem Suspiria.

One of the Smaller Tombstones in the English Cemetery, Succumbing to the Undergrowth

Famous visitors to the English cemetery of Livorno:

James Fenimore Cooper – American author who, on a visit to the English cemetery in Livorno in 1829, found among the American tombs that of Captain Thomas Gamble, commander of the Erie, who had died about ten years earlier. This man had been Cooper’s mate on the Lake Ontario twenty years before, and fate had brought him to stand before his companion’s tomb here in Livorno.

Charles Dickens also stopped here during his visit to Italy to visit the tomb of his countryman Smollett.

The keys to the cemetery are available by prior arrangement from the Misericordia offices opposite the cemetery (as the land now belongs to this Italian charity). Tel . +(39) 0586 897324 for an appointment, or contact me at Livorno Now if you have any problems.