Melaten-Friedhof

Melaten-Friedhof is Cologne's central cemetery at Piusstraße 120 in the Lindenthal district, west of the city centre in North rhine-Westphalia. Laid out in the early nineteenth century under French administration on the site of a former leper asylum, whose name derives from the French word for sick, it is one of the city's largest cemeteries and doubles as a quiet park and open-air museum of funerary art. Wide tree-lined avenues cross the grounds, and the best known, the so-called Millionenallee, is lined with elaborate family mausoleums and monuments belonging to prominent Cologne families. Visitors see angel statues, sculpted mourners, neo-Gothic chapels and weathered iron work, while the graves of well-known figures include the beloved Cologne entertainer Willy Millowitsch. Information boards and maps near the entrance help orient visitors, and guided walking tours are offered by local organisations and tour operators. A visit lasts one to two hours, and the grounds are large enough that a longer walk is easy. The cemetery is open daily during daylight hours, with closing times changing by season, so visitors should confirm times with the cemetery administration. It is free to enter. Spring and autumn mornings are best, when the light is soft and the trees colour the avenues; the grounds are generally quiet, and the main busy time is around All Saints' Day on 1 November, when many families visit graves. Photographers should be respectful of mourners and avoid photographing funerals or people at graves. Good angles lie along the main avenues, around the larger mausoleums and among the sculpted figures. The Stadtbahn stop Melaten on line 1 is about five minutes away on foot, and the cemetery combines with a walk through nearby Lindenthal.