Until the 18th century most funeral monuments were located inside churches, closer to the divine air, and where they could either buy a generation of prayer, or at least be entombed within earshot of genuflecting masses, so as to be lifted into heaven by their overhead chants. As churches became crowded with tombs, this open air monumental cemetery allowed noble families to build private chapels and crypts in a slightly more secular location, on the southern side of the hill of Poggioreale. The cemetery was begun during the Napoleonic occupation, and remodelled in 1836–1837.
