Crumbling Tombs = Cultural Crisis

Rome’s Non-Catholic Cemetery may be small, but it houses the remains of a stunning array of internationally known individuals, from authors John Keats and Mary Shelley to Communist crusader Antonio Gramsci. These days, though, the cemetery is in serious disarray, and has been placed on the World Monument Fund’s 2006 Watch List of the 100 most endangered sites on earth. “Many of its important monuments are crumbling like the bones they mark, damaged by pollution and years without archaeological maintenance.”