Savannah: Colonial Park Cemetery

Our last stop in Savannah was Colonial Park Cemetery, the second of two cemeteries we saw on our trip (the first was Bonaventure) and the oldest intact municipal cemetery in Savannah. Colonial Park opened around 1750 and closed to burials in 1853, before the start of the Civil War.

Colonial Park is located right in the heart of the historic downtown and it's open until 8pm on most days which is really convenient. It's smaller, more orderly and less picturesque than Bonaventure, but it's older and filled with the classic stones I love. I particularly love the historical markers—themselves now historic, since being placed around the city in the 50s—detailing the lives of some of the Colonial Park residents.

My favorite feature of the cemetery is the wall of broken headstones. Stones that have been broken or relocated over time are lined up and affixed to one of the brick walls surrounding the cemetery, creating a sort of art gallery where tombstones take the place of paintings. I've seen this before in cemeteries, but never with so many stones or with such a beautiful backdrop.

We saw a few flying cherubs, one skull and crossbones and loads of beautiful typography. We even saw another lizard—different than the one we spotted crawling on a tombstone in Bonaventure—which is not something you see to often up north.