Official visit of the mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, on the occasion of the commemoration of the deceased, to the cemeteries “Nuovissimo” and “Monumentale”
. Accompanying the mayor were the cemeteries councilor Vincenzo Santagada, the president of the IV Municipality Maria Caniglia and the city councilor Annamaria Maisto. Present were the archbishop of Naples, Monsignor Domenico Battaglia and the prefect Claudio Palomba.
“In the face of death, there is dignity for everyone. We will find a dignified burial for everyone.” This was said by the mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, on the sidelines of the celebration of the deceased at the church of Quadrato in the Poggioreale cemetery, in relation to the situation of the bodies involved in the two collapses that occurred, in two different places, inside the cemetery last year.
Manfredi reported that “the recovery of all the bodies is almost complete: there are about 4 thousand of which two thirds have also been identified. Only a hundred have been claimed by the families because often these are bodies that date back more than a century ago and therefore clearly the families are either far away or have dispersed.
We are still waiting a few months to complete the recovery, also in the hope that other families will also claim the bodies of their loved ones and then we will give a definitive arrangement to everyone in agreement with the Curia and the families".
Speaking more generally about the condition and maintenance of the Poggioreale cemetery, the mayor underlined that there are two different situations: that deriving from the collapse and that relating to the private chapels.
Regarding the areas affected by the collapse and the subway works, Manfredi explained that "the legal process is coming to an end in these weeks and we hope that the areas can be released quickly and that the construction sites can already restart and continue to move forward" and highlighted that "many interventions have been carried out to consolidate the hill which, from what the technicians say, guarantee a perfect condition of statics".
On the monumental cemetery front where many private chapels stand, the mayor emphasized the fact that "most of the chapels, about 90 percent, are owned by families who are now extinct or far from Naples and therefore there is a huge problem related to maintenance that is the responsibility of private individuals". Hence the need to identify "also from a legal point of view" a method that allows these chapels to return to the availability of the Municipality and possibly be reassigned but - Manfredi specified - "with an obligation to make them safe because we cannot intervene on private chapels but it is clear that extraordinary maintenance intervention on the entire monumental complex is essential".
Article published on November 2, 2023 - 15:07
