Lots of thefts, new fence on the north side coming up soon at the cemetery

Full height handrails will be installedTo fill the gaps through which thieves repeatedly managed to enter the ancient cemetery, to steal copper cables and vases, as well as old photos of the deceased. So the municipality of Bergamo has taken action, with a €150,000 project surrounding the area north of the Viale Pirovano cemetery, where in recent months, through the intervention of nearby Chorus Life, a path has been created right in the front bike lane.

By “revealing” the back of the columbaria, in addition to theft, a privacy problem has also been created for those who go to visit their loved ones, and find themselves a few meters from this well-paved road, a few meters from the ring road. But interest in the cemetery, as Public Works Consultant Marco Brimbilla is keen to say, is high: “This area was previously incorporated into municipal depots. With the construction of the new road, it is possible to easily reach the northern part of the cemetery, where there are walls, but also low railings, too low for criminals. Unfortunately, they broke in several times, stealing copper from crematorium towers, copper flower vases, and even some old photographs in the catacombs. To avoid these incidents, we decided not only to raise the handrail, but to make it reach the ceiling. “My colleague Giacomo Angeloni (Cemetery Services Advisor, Editor) and I pay great attention to the cemetery, and it breaks my heart to learn these facts.”

The Council approved the executive draft on Thursday. To view it, you will have to wait for the fence to be custom-made by a blacksmith and then installed, and the time expected by technicians is 60 days from the start of the construction site. To address the situation, the municipality, as of October 1, strengthened security inside the cemetery and provided a night watch service. But this is not enough. Hence the decision to intervene with a physical barrier, as the approved technical report itself stated: “Following the recent construction of the Chorus Life bypass, deforestation and meadow regeneration were carried out near the archaeological cemetery in the northern area – reads the document -. In this way the north-facing exterior is now visible when traveling along the road. After the intervention, several thefts and unauthorized entry occurred during the night hours due to the absence of barriers in some openings in the Columbarium area in the northern region.

The designers divided the Columbaria area into five parts, one of which will not be the subject of intervention, because it is already “protected”. “The new wall – we read it again in the report – will be built on the model of the existing wall with vertical shaft-shaped panels.” The skylights and glass will also be removed and railings introduced. Councilor Brimbilla explains that the hope of the administration is that with this barrier it will be very difficult to enter at least, and we are trying in every way to prevent evil people from entering the cemetery, and we know how much our people care about this matter. “How much pain these thefts bring.”