Bonaventure Cemetery

While reading a list of “what to do” while in Savannah, I discovered that a visit to Bonaventure Cemetery is a sight seeing must while in this historic town.  While we don’t usually visit cemeteries on our trips, Steve conceded to a visit after we checked out every marina nearby.

Bonaventure Cemetery was made famous by the novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil  written by John Berendt set in Savannah in the 1980’s. The cover photograph for the novel was taken by John Leigh is of the “Bird Girl” sculpture.  The sculpture had been in the cemetery for nearly 50 years and gone unnoticed until this photograph.  The sculpture has since been moved to the Telfair Museum of Art because there were so many visitors disrupting funerals to see the sculpture.  The film starring Kevin Spacey and John Cusak, directed by Clint Eastwood came out in 1997. 

Located at 330 Bonaventure Road in Savannah, the 160 acre cemetery sits along the Wilmington River.  It features both Christian and Jewish entrances and is the eternal home to many famous individuals. 

We could see the cemetery from the Wilmington River when we traveled to Savannah by boat!

We noticed while walking around that many graves had stones placed on them.  Some people leave stones on the grave to mark a visit, some leave stones to keep the dearly departed soul weighted down, some leave stones as a type of altar. Some people leave stones as a symbolic gesture reminiscent of the days of early Jewish Shepherds.  Shepherds often had trouble counting all their sheep and remembering how many sheep were in their charge, so they would keep a stone for each sheep in a sling carried each day.  It is said that the visitor who leaves a stone at the grave is asking God to keep the departed soul in His flock  

Amazing what one can learn from a visit to the cemetery!

joy