Bonaventure Cemetery: Victorian Sculpture & Architectural Guide

Why Bonaventure Cemetery is famous

Bonaventure Cemetery is the most photographed cemetery in the American South. It is also one of the most famous cemeteries in the world. The cemetery covers 160 acres on a bluff above the Wilmington River outside Savannah, Georgia. The look is unmistakable. Victorian funeral sculpture set among old live oaks heavy with Spanish moss. Photographers, painters, and writers have been recording it since the 1850s.

Bonaventure is important for three reasons. First, it holds one of the finest collections of 19th century funeral sculpture in the United States. There are weeping angels, draped urns, lifelike portrait figures, and large family plot enclosures. Second, the landscape is intact. The live oaks, hedges, and walkways are mostly the same as when the cemetery was laid out in the 1850s. Third, the cemetery shaped American pop culture through John Berendt’s bestselling 1994 book “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” and the 1997 film made from it.

Bonaventure was first the private cemetery of the Bonaventure plantation. It opened in 1846. The City of Savannah bought the cemetery in 1907 and runs it today as a municipal cemetery. It still accepts new burials.

Where is Bonaventure Cemetery?

Bonaventure Cemetery is at 330 Bonaventure Road, about three miles east of downtown Savannah, Georgia. The cemetery is open every day from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Admission is free. The Bonaventure Historical Society offers guided walking tours by appointment and on scheduled tour days through the year.

Architectural and landscape character

Bonaventure has a signature look. Old live oaks heavy with Spanish moss. Narrow walking lanes. Detailed Victorian sculpture rising out of family plot enclosures. The cemetery is laid out on a grid pattern instead of the curving rural cemetery format. That is because the layout was inherited from the original plantation grounds. The pattern is older than the rural cemetery movement.

The most active period for memorial work was the High Victorian era from the 1870s through the 1910s. The cemetery received its most ambitious sculpted commissions during that time. Common forms include life sized weeping angels in white Italian Carrara marble, draped urns and obelisks at small and large sizes, family plot enclosures bordered by ornate iron fencing or carved stone curbing, portrait sculpture showing lifelike images of the dead, and classical revival mausoleums in Greek and Egyptian styles.

Many marble sculptures have weathered a lot over the past century. Italian Carrara marble erodes in the humid Southern climate. Several of Bonaventure’s most photographed angels now have soft features as a result. The weathering is part of what gives the cemetery its haunted look.

The Gracie Watson monument is Bonaventure’s most photographed individual memorial. The German born sculptor John Walz carved the statue from white Italian marble. The life sized seated figure shows six year old Gracie Watson, who died of pneumonia in 1889. The natural pose and detail were a Victorian response to the high child mortality of the era. Today the monument is fenced off with iron after decades of visitors touching it without permission.

The Lawton and Wales family plots are the best examples of the cemetery’s family enclosure tradition. Each plot is bordered by ornate iron fencing or carved stone curbing. There is a central monument and individual markers for family members across many generations.

The full sculpted collection covers angels, draped figures, allegorical figures of Hope and Faith, and portrait busts. It is the most ambitious Victorian funeral art in the American South. Many of the sculptures are by John Walz, the carver who became Bonaventure’s signature artist in the late 19th century.

Visiting Bonaventure Cemetery

Bonaventure Cemetery is open every day from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Admission is free. The Bonaventure Historical Society offers guided walking tours led by trained volunteer docents. The tours are a great option for first time visitors who want to understand the cemetery’s history and architecture.

Where is Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah?
Bonaventure Cemetery is at 330 Bonaventure Road, about three miles east of downtown Savannah, Georgia.

Why is Bonaventure Cemetery famous?
Bonaventure is famous for three reasons. The collection of Victorian funeral sculpture is one of the finest in America. The 1800s landscape is mostly intact, with old Spanish moss draped live oaks. The cemetery appears on the cover of John Berendt’s 1994 bestseller “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.”

Who is buried at Bonaventure Cemetery?
Famous burials at Bonaventure include the Pulitzer winning poet Conrad Aiken, songwriter Johnny Mercer, Confederate general Robert H. Anderson, philanthropist Mary Telfair, and many notable Savannah families. The cemetery has more than 35,000 burials and is still active.

Can I visit Bonaventure Cemetery?
Yes. The cemetery is open every day from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Admission is free. The Bonaventure Historical Society offers guided walking tours, which are a great option for first time visitors.