Name that tomb

Some time back I did a little post on Lisbon's Cemetery of Pleasures, which is the best cemetery name, like, evah.

My goal was to document a pyramid mausoleum I saw there, the Jazigo dos Duques de Palmela -- which is loaded with Masonic symbolism -- but I didn't have a decent photo.  I did a little search and found one; the guy who snapped it, Luis Morgado, kindly agreed to let me use it.

So, I was delighted to hear from Luis again the other day, about the time I did my post which took a look at renovations at Toulouse's Terre Cabade cemetery, with it's Egyptian Revival gate and gatehouse, as well as a quick peep at the humbler pyramid tombs of Charles Piazzi Smyth and Charles Taze Russell.  Luis is traveling in North America and taking pictures; he did a great set in Chicago's Graceland Cemetery, in search of the tombs of some of America's greatest architects.  It's a wonderful cemetery with some impressive funerary architecture, if you're into that sort of thing, which I am!

I'm just gonna cut-and-past Wikipedia on this one:

Well-known Chicago brewer Peter....Schoenhofen's family mausoleum was designed by Richard E. Schmidt, a Chicago School architect, in 1893....The mausoleum is internationally famous and is one of the most photographed mausoleums at Graceland Cemetery.

The Schoenhofen Pyramid Mausoleum is a steep sided tomb designed, like many of the monuments at Chicago's Graceland Cemetery, in the Egyptian Revival style....The pyramid's design combines both Egyptian (the sphinx) and Christian (the angel) symbols.  Regardless, the American Institute of Architects' Chicago guide book called the angel "rather out-of-place".  The door to the pyramid is styled after the gateways at Karnak, in Egypt....A bronze molding of bundled reeds surrounds the door and the door's themselves feature cast lotus designs with coiled asps around the handles.

While the Schoenhofen Mausoleum is a pyramid, and referred to as such, its design is only Egyptian-inspired....There are several historical works that are considered related to the Schoenhofen Mausoleum. The Roman funerary pyramid of Caius Cestius is considered a historical predecessor to the Schoenhofen Mausoleum.  Perhaps more closely related are the pyramid by Louis Carrogis Carmontelle at Parc Monceau in Paris and a cenotaph by Antonio Canova that was erected as the tomb of Maria Christina in Vienna at the Augustinian Church.

As far as I can make out, neither Schoenhofen nor Schmidt were Freemasons, so I suppose this is really just a part of the larger Egyptian Revival rather than a nod towards esotericism.  Still, it's an impressive mausoleum, and it was nice of Luis to think of LoS.  And in that there's a nifty anecdote....Apparently Luis tried to send me these photos a couple of weeks ago, but his email was returned -- twice.  Then, the day after I posted about pyramid tombs, he saw the post and sent the email again, and it came through. 

I guess the universe needed to let me know something.  Still trying to figure out what that might be....