Born July 6, 1855 and dying December 25, 1898, Georges Rodenbach was a Belgian poet and writer who worked in the Symbolism movement. Which is probably why his tombstone in Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, France depicts a man breaking out of the grave. While it’s meant to symbolize how not even the bonds of death could hold him, however, it is always kind of creepy to see a body trying to break out of a grave.(source)
While not a headstone per say, this is a memorial with an actual head in it. The skull apparently belongs to St Vitalis of Assisi, who, and we kid you not, is the patron saint of venereal disease.
Born in 1295 and dying May 31, 1370, Vitalis was a Benedictine monk who lived most of his life in poverty. After his death, his head was apparently kept as a relic. Since the 17th Century, it has been housed in a Queen Anne case. In 2011, the skull was sold in an auction for 3500 euro ($4100 USD) to a movie star living in Los Angeles, California.(source)
8 The Mafia Cemeteries of Yekaterinburg, Russia
The Mafia Cemeteries of Yekaterinburg, Russia. Image Source: France 24
In Russia’s fourth largest city, Yekaterinburg, there are two cemeteries, one at each side of the city. The cemeteries are filled with the bodies of the cities two rival gangs; one cemetery for each gang. The tombstones are elaborate and over-the-top, often pictures of the dead men are etched in stone and the images are larger-than-life with some of tombstones being 10-feet tall. The ghostly images of the young men who died violent deaths haunt the cemetery, which is monitored around the clock by cameras.(source)
It was the late 19th Century and mortality rates of children were high. One of the creepiest tombstones from the time is found in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston. It is there, that visitors can find a child-sized bed as a marker for a child who passed away. The tombstone, complete with a pillow that fell off the side of the bed, has deteriorated over the century making it a creepy and heartbreaking memorial for someone who died too young.(source)
In the flu pandemic that ravaged the world in 1918, one of the people who lost their lives was a British man named Harry Thornton, who was a pianist that entertained troops during the First World War. While it may have been a loving tribute to the 35-year-old man, the piano has since decayed and the top of the piano has been lost. It is a haunting image that reminds us that nothing lasts forever.(source)
