Vampires & Pirates

These gravestones just remind me of old vampire movies or pirates.

I saw them as Anders, Dexter and I were going to our 100ft in the sky dining in the sky experience the other day. We had parked our car in the multi-story which is underground, gone out the back and then cut through this churchyard which has some very old and amazing 17th & 18th century graves.

The gravestones I believe are so impressive - and as we strolled through the graveyard, we couldn't help but be impressed by their Gothic carvings, and thankful that we were not born around this period as the amount of infant mortality was horrendous. To put this into perspective, these graves were erected by wealthy families who could afford such luxuries, and some these graves were paying tribute to minimum of 8 children from the one family! These wealthier families would have had heating and food, so what must have life been like for those less "fortunate"?

Some families had open air gated crypts.....

Most of the stonework had some form of carving on it usually by way of a skull & crossbones which was the symbol for death and mortality (and if wings were depicted then that meant ascension to heaven)....

and some of the later crypts had roofs on them.

99% of these graves however have the most amazing stone masonry carvings and going through this cemetery to view these is worthwhile alone, although perhaps not if you are scared of heights and about to dine at 100ft as I was!