Tag Archives: Cemetery

Random Bonaventure Cemetery

Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah is older than Magnolia in Charleston. Only a few years, but enough to make a difference.

I had always wanted to visit Bonaventure since it’s always compared to Magnolia, and Magnolia was created based on the ideas started in Savannah.

The US civil war changed the path of Magnolia which was damaged and housed federal troops for a period of time. Bonaventure is much more structured and manicured.

Both are special and beautiful.

Random Bonaventure Cemetery
Random Bonaventure Cemetery
Random Bonaventure Cemetery
Random Bonaventure Cemetery
Random Bonaventure Cemetery
Random Bonaventure Cemetery

I think my preference is the unstructured, almost scattered, layout of Magnolia. That said, the wild flowers and long open lanes of Bonaventure are incredible.

Cemetery Art

The first small angel was magnificent and made you stop and stare when passing by. Like everything in this part of the cemetery it was old, yet so well done it must have gotten better with age.

Cemetery Art
Cemetery Art

Below is a tall, maybe 3 meters, statue that watched above an overgrown path. There were several very similar along the back river side trail.

Cemetery Art
Cemetery Art

 

Bonaventure Spring Blooms

“Of all the plants of these curious tree-gardens the most striking and characteristic is the so-called Long Moss (Tillandsia usneoides). It drapes all the branches from top to bottom, hanging in long silvery-gray skeins, reaching a length of not less than eight or ten feet, and when slowly waving in the wind they produce a solemn funereal effect singularly impressive” John Muir, 1867.

Bonaventure Spring Blooms
Bonaventure Spring Blooms
Bonaventure Spring Blooms
Bonaventure Spring Blooms

John Muir, founder of the US National Parks, naturalist, founder of the Sierra Club spent 6 days camping in Bonaventure. His writings contained many references to the cemetery.

Bonaventure Spring Blooms
Bonaventure Spring Blooms

Bonaventure is one of three gothic cemeteries originally envisioned as both a public park and cemetery. The property, like Charleston’s Magnolia Cemetery, was first a plantation and family cemetery.

Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia.