The Glasgow Necropolis

The Glasgow Necropolis rises above the city on a basalt hill, its skyline crowded with dark sandstone monuments, Victorian obelisks, and ornate family mausoleums. This garden cemetery opened in eighteen thirty-two, modeled after the Père Lachaise in Paris. Wealthy merchants built these elaborate markers to showcase their success during the height of the tobacco and sugar trades. John Knox stands atop the highest column, gazing down from his pedestal while thirty-five thousand people remain buried in the hillside vaults below him.