The mystery of Brodsky's death. Why the ashes of the poet rested a year and a half later

On the island of San Michele, a tourist is not a frequent visitor, although the island is located within sight - no more than half a kilometer separates it from Venice. In ancient times, there was a monastery of the Archangel Michael, and in 1807 Cimitero appeared - a city cemetery planted with cypress trees, which was surrounded by a red brick wall in the 1870s. Now it is the most famous "island of the dead" in the world. It is interesting for Russians because it is here that the ashes of several people, our compatriots, whose names are dear to Russian and world culture, are buried.

Entering through the portal, on which St. Michael defeats the dragon, at first you find yourself in the backyard of the monastery.

The cemetery of San Michele is divided into zones: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Jewish.

Entrance to the first zone

The local cemetery culture, of course, is very different from ours. Grooming, brightness, even some flashy color is striking. Most of the tomb photos show people smiling.

Tombstones are usually good, here are samples.

A lot of family crypts like these

A separate area is allocated for soldiers and officers who died in the First World War.

Here is a common monument

This is a monument to the crew of the lost submarine

On the morning of August 7, 1917, 7 miles from the island of Brioni, near the naval base of Pola, during maneuvers, the submarine F-14 was rammed by the destroyer Missori while submerged. The boat sank at a depth of 40 meters. After 34 hours, she was raised, but 27 people of the boat's crew died 3 hours before lifting, suffocating with chlorine gas.

Some local ace

Entrance to the Orthodox cemetery (Reparto Greco-Ortodosso)

Well-groomedness and chic are noticeably less here.

But it is it that is a place of international pilgrimage - because of the two graves located at the back wall.

On the left is Diaghilev's. According to the Italian composer Casella, in the last years of his life, Diaghilev "lived on credit, unable to pay for a hotel" in Venice, and on August 19, 1929, "died alone, in a hotel room, poor as he had always been." The funeral of the great impresario was paid for by Coco Chanel, a good friend of Diaghilev, who during the life of the maestro gave money for many of his productions.

The grave is decorated with the inscription: "Venice, the constant inspirer of our reassurance" (Diaghilev's dying words), ballet pointe shoes are right there.

To her right lie the ashes of Igor Stravinsky and his wife Vera.

Someone brought a chestnut to the maestro.

From the Orthodox cemetery we head to the Protestant one (Reparto Evangelico),

for it is here that one should look for the grave of Joseph Brodsky.
Here she is, between two cypresses.

Initially, they wanted to bury Joseph Brodsky in an Orthodox cemetery, between Diaghilev and Stravinsky. But the Russian Orthodox Church in Venice did not agree, as no evidence was provided that the poet was Orthodox. The Catholic clergy showed no less severity.

In fact, great poets usually do not make mistakes when talking about their fate. Brodsky was wrong.
Young wrote:

No country, no graveyard
I don't want to choose.
To Vasilyevsky Island
I will come to die.

However, he never returned to Russia, to St. Petersburg. They say he had a deep conviction that you can not go back. One of his last arguments was: "The best part of me is already there - my poetry." I don't know, it doesn't sound very convincing to me.
Be that as it may, now it forever coexists with the grave of Ezra Pound - an outcast of Western civilization, stigmatized for collaborating with fascism, whose execution was demanded by Arthur Miller, Lion Feuchtwanger and other left-wing intellectuals.

Such is the black humor, which is hardly appropriate in the cemetery.

Living in the USSR, Brodsky dreamed of Venice.
When he left the country, he came to Venice for seventeen years. Exclusively in winter.
Wrote about Venice "Quay of the Incurables".
After his death, the body of the poet was reburied in Venice, on the island-cemetery of San Michele.

We will talk about two Venetian places associated with Brodsky - the "quay of the incurable" and the island of San Michele.

What is the "Promenade of the Incurables" that is not on modern maps of Venice?

Let's turn to Brodsky's text:

“From the house we went to the left and in two minutes we found ourselves on the Fondamenta degli Incurabili.
Ah, the eternal power of language associations! Ah, this fabulous ability of words to promise more than reality can give! Ah, the tops and roots of the writer's craft. Of course, "The Embankment of the Incurable" refers to the plague, to the epidemics that, century after century, half devastated the city with the regularity of a census-maker. This name brings to mind hopeless cases - not so much wandering along the pavement as lying on it, literally breathing their last breath, in shrouds, waiting for them to come for them - or, more precisely, to sail. Torches, braziers, gauze masks that protect against infectious fumes, the rustle of monastic robes and vestments, the fluttering of black cloaks, candles. The funeral procession gradually turns into a carnival, or even a walk when you have to wear a mask, because in this city everyone knows each other.

(Joseph Brodsky "Embankment of the Incurable")

Those who want to find the famous Brodsky embankment should look on the map for Fondamenta delle Zattere, the Raft Embankment in the Dorsoduro quarter, about two kilometers long, opposite the island of Giudecca. This embankment was in the “plague” times the embankment of the Incurable (Fondamenta degli incurabili). The attentive ones will notice the hint signs “Zattere agli Incurabili” (“Zattere, the former Incurables”).
In 2009, a memorial plaque to Joseph Brodsky appeared on the embankment.

The island of the dead, San Michele became a cemetery in 1807, by order of Napoleon.
Before that, there was a monastery on the island, and later - a prison. Before the appearance of the cemetery, the Venetians buried the dead in the city: in gardens, churches, cellars. The Venetian authorities, in some cases, allow prominent people to be buried at San Michele.

Igor Stravinsky, a Russian composer, conductor and pianist, is buried in San Michele - he died in Venice in 1971. A few years later, his wife was buried next to Stravinsky.

Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev, a Russian theatrical and artistic figure, organizer of the Russian Seasons in Paris, who died in Venice in 1929, is buried not far from Stravinsky's grave.
Ballet shoes are attached to the Diaghilev monument.

On January 28, 1996, Joseph Brodsky died in New York.
There are several versions about why they decided to bury the poet in San Michele.
Some argue about his own disposal in this regard in the will.
Others - about the proposal of one of the poet's friends, supported by Brodsky's widow Maria Sozzani.
Be that as it may, but on June 21, 1997 in Venice, with the permission of the city authorities, the body of Joseph Brodsky was reburied at the cemetery of San Michele.
The place was allocated on the Protestant part of the cemetery, as for a person without religion.
On the reverse side of the modest monument are the words from Propertius's elegy Letum non omnia finit ("Not everything ends with death").

I am writing these lines sitting on a white chair
outdoors, in winter, in one
jacket, giving in, pushing cheekbones
phrases in the native language.
The coffee is cold. Splashing lagoon, a hundred
small glare dim pupil penalty
for trying to remember a landscape that can do without me.

(Joseph Brodsky "Venetian stanzas (2)" 1982)

How to get to San Michele: sail on vaporetto 41 or 42.
From Fondamente Nuovo one stop to Cimitero.

At the cemetery, I asked "where is Brodsky's grave", I thought that they would simply wave "there", and the attendants kindly escorted me to the place.
But you can also follow the signs.

San Michele is a graveyard island surrounded by a brick wall with a gate, but it does not make a painful impression, even in winter. Many crypts and tombstones are real architectural masterpieces, in addition, there are a sufficient number of burial places of famous cultural and public figures on the island (first of all, of course, Italian, but there are also very famous foreigners, there are about seventy remarkable monuments in total), so it’s definitely worth a trip there ( there is a vaporetto from the Fondamento Nuove promenade and back). When I visited there, it was a sunny hot February day.
San Michele has been a monastic complex since the 13th century, but Napoleon, after he conquered Venice, ordered that the dead be buried not on the "mainland", but here, on a separate island (in fact, there were even two islands, they were artificially connected, filling up the channel between them). Here he also held political prisoners. The main architectural design of the cemetery was received at the beginning of the 19th century.
The cemetery is divided into several main parts, each of which, in turn, is also divided into several sections. Most of all, of course, the Catholics have the most space (the "evangelists", "Greeks" and Jews have small areas). Some parts are fenced, some are not, for orientation at the entrance there is a diagram and signs everywhere.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF 24-105 f/4L IS USM,
Canon EF 70-200 f 4L IS USM, Canon Extender EF 1.4x II teleconverter.

There is an old part, with full-fledged graves and even family crypts,

there is a modern one, where there are a lot of such stone "dressers" for cremated bodies,
some of them are not filled yet.

I did not have the task of covering the entire cemetery, it is large,
I was primarily interested in the graves of Russians - Brodsky, Diaghilev and Stravinsky.
(The fact that Peter Vail was also buried on San Michele, I found out only later, is a pity).
First I went to Brodsky.
His grave is in the Protestant section because only the Protestants agreed
compromise and gave shelter to the great Russian atheist poet.

Flowers on the grave of Joseph Alexandrovich are in abundance, and there are fresh bouquets.
In front of me, a young Russian family with a child was visiting the grave, I heard how the parents
told their little daughter who Brodsky was. Someone else came after me...

At the stele with the name of the poet there is a box where you can throw a note.
I opened it - there were a couple of pieces of paper at the bottom, of course, I didn’t read them,
this secret must remain strictly between the poet and his admirers.

Some admirers of Brodsky's poetry, however, are not so shy,
and leave notes addressed to him on bright ribbons, tying them to a rose bush.

Mostly Greeks and Russians are buried in the Orthodox part of the cemetery.

The most luxurious grave of Sergei Diaghilev.
As during his lifetime he was an imposing dandy, and after his death he continues to fascinate.

As you can easily see from the pictures on the internet,
pointe shoes on Diaghilev's tombstone are constantly changing.
With me lay such new, beautiful ones, as well as a long branch of a fresh orchid.

A photo portrait in a wooden frame is a newspaper clipping or a photocopier,
worn and slightly torn, so that it would be disrespectful to steal, probably.

The tombstones of the Stravinskys are much simpler and stricter,
The flowers were only artificial.

It turns out that music lovers are not so devoted, unlike those in love with poetry and theater,
although Stravinsky's contribution to music is no less than Brodsky's to poetry, and Diaghilev's to ballet.

I didn’t get to the main temple on the island (it’s closed at this time anyway),
and this is the second church inscribed in the architectural ensemble, in honor of St. Christopher.

Along the walls of the temple there are several memorable bas-reliefs.

Not all of them were shot because of the bright sun, I will show only a couple.

The church was closed, but it was nice to look at it from the outside.

Especially on the statue of the Archangel Gabriel above the entrance,
for her sake, I even took out a telephoto, in my opinion, she is beautiful.

In conclusion, references to Brodsky's essay on Venice, "Embankment of the Incurable", to a documentary film about Brodsky, filmed in Venice in 1990 (somewhere in the middle of the film, Brodsky sits against the backdrop of San Michele and reads in English his note on the death of his parents , to whose funeral he was not allowed in), as well as Brodsky’s magnificent poem about architecture:

Evgeny Rein

Architecture, mother of ruins,
jealous of the clouds
whose cloudy head of cabbage is boiled,
on whose meadows
the bomber is walking,
then - more invulnerable
for the eyes - the spy of the general
affairs - seraphim,

only you alone, architecture,
fiancee, bride, pearl
space, whose lip is not a fool,
how Tasso sang
immeasurable courage,
which we cannot comprehend
justify the location, address,
pockmarked brick.

You are, in essence, what nature
failed. Zane she
can't wait for the offspring
from the boulder
trying to stop searching,
get rid of the hustle and bustle.
But the future is a thing of stone
and this is you.

You are the vacuum empress.
The facetedness of your scabs
in your hand the crystal sparkles,
rising
faster than Everest;
clothed in a pyramid, in a cube,
so sharpened by the idea of ​​a place
on Chronos tooth.

Born in imagination
which you will survive
you are the next move
step per drawing
naturalness, tall huts,
chasing their attic
- in the direction from which it is heard
one tick tock.

Sighing for their penates
in plant motifs, etc.,
you are more for the superfeathered
creatures roost,
not so much playing with dolls,
as thinking that they will exalt,
prudently opening his dome
like a parachute.

Noise of Time, it is known, there is nothing
parry. But, in turn,
his need for things is stronger than
vice versa:
as in society or at home.
For Time your temple, your rubbish
relatives as an interlocutor of a thousand
like us.

What could be more eloquent
than inanimate? Only
nothingness itself, whose field
you dust your brain
not so much the dials as
the galaxy itself, about communication
guessing the role of a fragment
asking there.

You are, roughly speaking, full
looking at prostrate prostrate,
sifting us through a sieve
lived. units,
flirting with the light
borrowing forms from him,
so that we understand what is on it
we collided.

To the ethereal with abstract envy
and them to you vice versa,
yours, architecture, ovary,
but also a fruit.
And if in the ionosphere
really only zeros,
your loss at least
end of the earth.

San Michele is the city cemetery of Venice. The place is very remarkable, with an amazing (as everywhere in Venice) history and connected with Russia.

When there were two islands. San Michele was called "Cavana de Muran" - a stopover on the way to Murano. There has been a church on San Michele since the 10th century, in 1212 the island was transferred to the monastery of the Kamadul order. In 1469, Mauro Caldussi built a church there, called San Michele de Isola (meaning "on the island"). When Venice was subjugated by Napoleon in 1797, the monastery was abolished, and for 30 years there was a prison on San Michele, where Italian patriots who fought against the French and Austrians were kept. In 1829 the monastery was returned to the Franciscans.
Another islet, San Cristoforo, was called the “Pace Affairs” - Peaceful, as it was presented to the theologian Fra Simeone for preparing for the conclusion of the Peace of Lodia in 1454, when the Italian states decided to end the conflicts in the Apennines and create the “Italian League”. On the island there was a Benedictine monastery, a small church of San Cristoforo, which had a cemetery. It was this cemetery that in 1807, by order of Napoleon, was to become the only city cemetery in Venice. The architect Gian Antonio Selva was the author of the structures.
In 1836, the channel between the islands was filled in, the new island was named San Michele, and the whole was transferred to the cemetery. Many Russians who came to Venice, representatives of noble families, and emigrants in the 20th century are buried here, including Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Diaghilev, Joseph Brodsky.
The main part of the island is Catholic burials, there is a section of the Greek church (where Russians are buried) and the Lutheran church. There is a problem with places in the cemetery, the island is cramped, burials can be transferred to the columbarium in a few years. But the graves of famous people enjoy attention, there are signs to them.


Arnold Böcklin. Dead island. A painting by a 19th-century Swiss artist represents a type of cemetery island.

Giovanni Antonio Canale - Canaletto. View of San Cristoforo, San Michele and Murano. What did the islands look like in the 18th century?

Now at the entrance to the cemetery there is a beautiful courtyard

View of the Protestant cemetery

Joseph Brodsky (1940-96) is buried here

View of the Greek cemetery

Many Russians are buried here

Greek chapel, services are held several times a year on days of special commemoration of the dead.

Princess Trubetskaya, née Musina-Pushkina

Grave of Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929)

Volkova - Muromtseva

Vera Volkova-Mitrofan (1872-1950)

Princess Ekaterina Bagration

De Bem, née Martinova

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) and his wife Vera Arkadievna, née de Bosse (1889-1982)

Catholic part of the cemetery

Memorial plaque to the inhabitants of Venice who died in the war in Russia

Monastery courtyard

Lizards crawl on stones in the sun