Most of St. Adalbert’s is open grass with monuments, which is what the people who maintain cemeteries prefer. (Actually, they much prefer it without the monuments, which is why most cemeteries today allow only flush markers that can be mowed over with huge machines.) But one small section on the southern edge of the cemetery slopes down a delightful wooded hillside. It is maintained well enough to keep the jungle away from the monuments, but left natural enough to be indescribably picturesque.
Calvary Cemetery is huge, and the best thing about it is the hilltop site, which opens up beautiful views in all directions.
In many city neighborhoods you’ll find a cemetery or two much older than the neighborhood itself. Cemeteries were established in the countryside outside the city; the city grew to engulf them, but they often remain little oases of rural stillness in the urban bustle. The South Side Cemetery has graves going back well before the Civil War, when Carrick was farmland and wilderness, and the hilly location gives us spectacular views in all directions. The contrast between the dense and cluttered urban neighborhood and the calm peace of the cemetery seems as though it ought to be a metaphor for something.
Cemeteries in Pittsburgh have the advantage of Pittsburgh topography to make them picturesque. Add fall colors, and the picturesqueness is irresistible. The Union Dale Cemetery is the premier address for deceased residents of the old City of Allegheny.
Downtown skyscrapers viewed from St. Michael’s Cemetery on the South Side Slopes. This picture is only as metaphorical as you want it to be.
St. Michael’s Cemetery occupies a large patch of precipitous ground on the South Side Slopes. The views from here are breathtaking and sometimes a little terrifying. Here we see Oakland in the distance across the Monongahela, with a few rows of typical Slopes frame houses in the middle distance.
