DÉCIMO OITAVO LIVRO
TOMBS AND OTHER HOUSES FOR THE DEAD
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In Portugal, like in the rest of southern Europe, cemeteries are like
walled towns with gates, streets lined with rows of minute temples, houses
and chapels interspersed with monuments.
The family vaults are idealised temples or chapels with shelves for the sarcophagi along both sides. They are like strongrooms, like safes faced in marble or stone to promise permanence in the long voyage to forever.
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The Boesch Family Tomb is an eroded cube which manages to retain an awareness of its initial perfection. |
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The Fernandes Family Tomb is a cylinder-like chapel which was to have been faced in a stone mosaic. |
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The massive and enormously heavy Tombstone has a recessed base so it appears to hover over the ground in paradoxical contradiction. The cross and recessed letters and signs gather dust and leaves. The troughed cross collects rain and mirrors it. |
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