10 Images from Old Cemetery. Visual Story about Dereliction, Vandalism, and Beauty (PowerUp 100%)

A yesterday walk with a Nikkor 24mm f/2.8D on a Nikon DSLR (D750). The destination is Smolenskoye Lutheran Cemetery, St. Petersburg, Russia.

The cemetery hosts graves of Germans and other Westerners who died mostly in the XIX century. These people arrived in Russian Empire to make a career in its capital, St. Petersburg, a young city that grew fast and needed skilled scientists, military, artists, and artisans. The cemetery was young at that time too. Much changed since then. Let's take a look.

An artwork created by a sculptor, vandals, and forces of nature together. I like the colours and the way (sorry to say) the statue was sadly broken.

A woman in grief lost herself in the forest of Purgatory (Чистилище):

I suppose someone was shooting at this statue with a pneumatic gun. It is covered with shallow notches (выемки) but the face damaged the most because it probably served as the bull's eye (яблочко).

Could it be that they shot at not only statues here once in the 1990s?

It could be.

A shoe. A deadman's shoe?

I like how the glass and the leaves merge into a single whole, thanks to being under snow for three months.

A bottle for smoking.

Let's see what is inside of a grave:

The grave plate has been broken and lays bare emptiness filled with old garbage and remnants of winter snow.

One more damaged construction:

This is a metal box that, I guess, served as a gravestone for a passed baby. Or was it a sarcophagus?

John Baird, died in 1832, at the age of 2 years and 2 months.

His father is there too. They were Scottish...

There is a person behind some of these pieces of art:

This is Vincenzo Moderni who belonged to the Italian dynasty of sculptors specialized in tombstones.

Right from his remains, a large tree grows:

One more wooden vandal, a silent servant of Time, a poplar, devours a metal fence:

I discovered this cemetery in 1999 and, since then, I regularly visit it. So this is not the last reportage from this place.

Thank you for reading! Comments below will be appreciated :)

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This is my 8th day of "14 days of DIVING" by @bambuka. I post this story as a "50/50" but I commit myself to transfer SBD to SP. According to the rules mentioned here.