The Memorial Necropole Ecumênica has fourteen floors — © Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Bron: The Guardian
After three days of national mourning, football legend Pelé will be buried on Tuesday at the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica in Sao Paulo. In other words: the world’s highest cemetery, with fourteen floors. Although the place is not only striking for that reason: the cemetery also has a waterfall and vehicle museum.
Nineteen years ago, Pelé already knew where he wanted to be buried, writes O Globo newspaper: at the famous Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica. The footballer even paid for a place on the ninth floor, referring to his father’s shirt number.
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The cemetery located in Santos, in Sao Paulo, is in fact a vertical cemetery. With its fourteen floors, it is even the highest cemetery in the world, according to Guinness World Records. It has room for 14,000 deceased, and there are plans to expand even further.
In addition to that, the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica also offers space to organize vigils, according to the website, it has a crematorium “with luxurious ceremony room”, a chapel, and a tropical garden with waterfall. Strangely enough, there is even a vehicle museum on the grounds of the cemetery. Because founder Pepe Alstut – who had the cemetery built in 1983 – “was also a lover of old-timers”, their website clarifies.
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Before Pelé is buried there, fans will be able to say goodbye to the footballer at the Vila Belmiro stadium. His coffin will be there in the middle of the field for 24 hours. A private funeral will follow on Tuesday at 10 a.m., after which a funeral procession will travel through the city to the street where Pelé’s bedridden mother – now 100 years old – still lives. To finally be buried at Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica, less than a kilometer from the Vila Belmiro stadium.
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