Non-Catholic Cemetery Historical Timeline

Last updated on September 29, 2026

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A burial ground that existed for a century before anyone officially admitted it did.

Chronology

1671 — the Holy Office consents that the "non-Catholic Messers" who die in the city be spared burial in the cemetery of Muro Torto. Structural impact: none built; a permission rather than a foundation. What you see today: the reason the site is here at all — non-Catholics chose these meadows themselves, and were allowed to.
1716 — the earliest known burial, a Protestant physician from Edinburgh named Arthur, a follower of the exiled King James VII and II who had come to Rome after the Jacobite defeats. Structural impact: the first grave in open ground. What you see today: the start date the Cemetery still counts from.
1732 — William Ellis, treasurer to the exiled king, is said to have been buried at the foot of the Pyramid. Structural impact: burials cluster against the monument. What you see today: the oldest graves are the ones nearest the Pyramid.
18th–19th centuries — the ground is known as "the meadows of the Roman people", public land where drovers grazed cattle. Burials happen at night, to avoid demonstrations of religious fanaticism and to protect the mourners. Structural impact: no walls, no planting, no protection for the tombs. What you see today: the cypresses are later; at the start of the nineteenth century only holly grew here.
1821 — Sir Walter Synnot buries his daughter in broad daylight, accompanied by guards. The same year, John Keats is buried here. Structural impact: none. What you see today: Keats's headstone, which does not carry his name.
1822 — Percy Bysshe Shelley drowns off the Italian Riviera and is cremated on the beach near Viareggio; his ashes reach the British consulate in Rome and are interred here some months later. Structural impact: none. What you see today: a stone reading Cor cordium, and three lines from The Tempest.
1824 — a moat is dug around the ancient part of the cemetery. Structural impact: the first physical boundary the ground ever had. What you see today: the division between the old part and everything added later.
1820s — the Papal government finally appoints a custodian to oversee the area. Structural impact: management, after a century without it. What you see today: a cemetery laid out and tended rather than simply accumulating.
1870 — until this year, crosses and inscriptions were forbidden here as in all non-Catholic cemeteries. Structural impact: decides what the older monuments could say. What you see today: the contrast between the plainer early graves and the sculpture that follows them.
2019 and 2023 — the novelist Andrea Camilleri is buried here in 2019, the former President of Italy Giorgio Napolitano in 2023. Structural impact: none; new burials are rare, because there is very little space. What you see today: proof that it is a working cemetery and not a monument.

Verified against Wikipedia, September 2026.

External Resources

Sources & verification Covers the sourced claims on this page.

Checked against Wikipedia — Because the norms of the Catholic Church forbade burying non-Catholics on consecrated ground, burials at the Non-Catholic Cemetery occurred at night to avoid manifestations of religious fanaticism and to preserve the safety of those who participated in the funeral rites, an exception being made for Sir Walter Synnot who managed to bury his daughter in broad daylight in 1821 accompanied by a group of guards to be protected from incursions of fanatics, In the 18th and 19th centuries the area of the Non-Catholic Cemetery was called the meadows of the Roman people, an area of public property where drovers used to graze the cattle, and it was the non-Catholics themselves who chose those places for their burials, allowed by a decision of the Holy Office which in 1671 consented that the non-Catholic Messers who died in the city were spared a burial in the shameful cemetery of Muro Torto; the first burial of a Protestant was that of a follower of the exiled King James VII and II named William Arthur, and it is said that in 1732 the treasurer of the King of England, William Ellis, was buried at the foot of the Pyramid, The Non-Catholic Cemetery developed without any official recognition and only at the end of 1700 did Papal authorities start to take care of it, a custodian not being appointed until the 1820s; at the beginning of the nineteenth century only holly plants grew in the area and there was no other natural nor artificial protection for the tombs, as the cypresses that adorn the cemetery today were planted later on; in 1824 a moat was erected that surrounded the ancient part of the cemetery; and in ancient times crosses or inscriptions were forbidden, as in all non-Catholic cemeteries, at least until 1870, Because of the scarcity of space relatively few illustrious Italians are buried in the Non-Catholic Cemetery, on the grounds of having expressed in life alternative culture and ideas, foreign compared to the dominant one, among them the politicians Antonio Gramsci and Emilio Lussu alongside Giorgio Napolitano, the writer and poet Dario Bellezza, the writers Carlo Emilio Gadda and Luce d'Eramo; it is rare that new burials are added, the writer Andrea Camilleri being buried here on 18 July 2019 and the former President of Italy Giorgio Napolitano in 2023, John Keats died in Rome of tuberculosis at the age of 25 and is buried in the Non-Catholic Cemetery, his epitaph, which does not mention him by name, being by his friends Joseph Severn and Charles Armitage Brown and reading that this grave contains all that was mortal of a young English poet who on his death bed, in the bitterness of his heart at the malicious power of his enemies, desired these words to be engraven on his tombstone: Here lies one whose name was writ in water, Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned in 1822 in a sailing accident off the Italian Riviera and when his body washed up on the shore a copy of Keats's poetry borrowed from Leigh Hunt was discovered in his pocket, doubled back as though it had been put away in a hurry; he was cremated on the beach near Viareggio by his friends Lord Byron and Edward John Trelawny, and his ashes were sent to the British consulate in Rome who had them interred in the Protestant Cemetery some months later; Shelley and Mary's three-year-old son William was also buried there, and Shelley's gravestone is inscribed Cor cordium, heart of hearts, followed by a quotation from Shakespeare's The Tempest: Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea change, Into something rich and strange (September 2026).

Non-Catholic Cemetery Historical Timeline

Chronology

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