10 Unbelievably Creepy Tombstones and Memorials

When it comes to making memorials for people who died, a very common practice is using a headstone as a marker where the person is buried. Usually, they have the name of the person, along with the date of their birth and death. Sometimes, there is an epitaph, which is just an inscription that embodies the person who has passed on. Then there are the headstones that are just bizarre, shocking and downright creepy.

1. Josep Llaudet Soler

This creepy statue is found in Barcelona’s Poblenou cemetery. It is hidden in the back corner of the cemetery and it is unclear who exactly sculpted it. However, textile manufacturer Josep Llaudet Soler is interred at the site of the statue and the inscription is equally as haunting:

“The blood in his veins grows cold.
And all strength has gone.
Faith has been extolled by his fall into the arms of death.
Amen.”

(source)

2. Inez Clarke

The story goes that Inez Clarke was just 6 when she died in 1880. The girl was killed during a storm while on a family picnic and was buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois. After her death, her parents had a life size sculpture made in the likeness of their dearly departed daughter. It was put in a glass case to protect it from the elements.
If the statue of a young girl, wearing old-fashioned clothes in a cemetery wasn’t frightening enough, there are many ghost stories surrounding the grave site. People have heard weeping coming from the area. Other people claim that during thunderstorms the statue disappears, only to reappear later, back in its glass case.
It’s also interesting to note that it may not even be Inez Clarke buried there, as there are no records of a girl dying and being buried in that area. It is believed an 8-year-old boy named Amos Briggs is actually interred at the foot of the statue.(source)

3. Fernand Arbelot

Fernand Arbelot was an actor and musician who lived from 1880 to 1942 in France. He was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery with a very unusual statue as a marker for his headstone. It is a man, holding a disembodied head and staring at it. It is supposed to represent Arbelot looking into the face of his wife for all of eternity.(source)

4. Lilly E Gray

At first glance the tombstone for 77-year-old Lilly E. Gray, who was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery in 1958, may just look like any other tombstone. However, there is a stark message written as the epitaph, which is “Victim of the Beast 666”. Gray had died of natural causes and no one is sure why that is written as her epitaph. One other interesting thing to note is that Gray’s husband is also buried in the same cemetery, but far away from his wife’s grave.(source)

5. The Tazacorte Martyrs Memorial

While this may look like a grave site that is flooded, it is in fact an underwater memorial to a group of Jesuit missionaries who were travelling from Portugal to Brazil in 1570. A French pirate named Jacques Sourie boarded their ship and then he and his men killed all the priests; some of the priests even had their limbs cut off and then were thrown overboard. Only the cook on the ship survived the massacre.
The memorial was set up near La Palma Island, which is part of the Canary Islands, near the area of the massacre. The memorial is 18 meters below the surface and features 40 crosses, one for each of the victims.(source)

6. Georges Rodenbach

Born July 6, 1855 and dying December 25, 1898, Georges Rodenbach was a Belgian poet and writer who worked in the Symbolism movement. Which is probably why his tombstone in Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, France depicts a man breaking out of the grave. While it’s meant to symbolize how not even the bonds of death could hold him, however, it is always kind of creepy to see a body trying to break out of a grave.(source)

7. St Vitalis of Assisi

While not a headstone per say, this is a memorial with an actual head in it. The skull apparently belongs to St Vitalis of Assisi, who, and we kid you not, is the patron saint of venereal disease.
Born in 1295 and dying May 31, 1370, Vitalis was a Benedictine monk who lived most of his life in poverty. After his death, his head was apparently kept as a relic. Since the 17^th Century, it has been housed in a Queen Anne case. In 2011, the skull was sold in an auction for 3500 euro ($4100 USD) to a movie star living in Los Angeles, California.(source)

8. The Mafia Cemeteries of Yekaterinburg, Russia

In Russia’s fourth largest city, Yekaterinburg, there are two cemeteries, one at each side of the city. The cemeteries are filled with the bodies of the cities two rival gangs; one cemetery for each gang. The tombstones are elaborate and over-the-top, often pictures of the dead men are etched in stone and the images are larger-than-life with some of tombstones being 10-feet tall. The ghostly images of the young men who died violent deaths haunt the cemetery, which is monitored around the clock by cameras.(source)

9. The Child’s Bed

It was the late 19^th Century and mortality rates of children were high. One of the creepiest tombstones from the time is found in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston. It is there, that visitors can find a child-sized bed as a marker for a child who passed away. The tombstone, complete with a pillow that fell off the side of the bed, has deteriorated over the century making it a creepy and heartbreaking memorial for someone who died too young.(source)

10. Harry Thornton

In the flu pandemic that ravaged the world in 1918, one of the people who lost their lives was a British man named Harry Thornton, who was a pianist that entertained troops during the First World War. While it may have been a loving tribute to the 35-year-old man, the piano has since decayed and the top of the piano has been lost. It is a haunting image that reminds us that nothing lasts forever.(source)

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Tuesday 27 January 2015