Bonaventure Cemetery

Bonaventure Cemetery sits on a bluff above the Wilmington River just east of Savannah, Georgia, on land that was once a colonial plantation. Established as a public cemetery in the mid-19th century, it became a celebrated example of the rural or garden cemetery movement, with winding lanes shaded by great live oaks draped in Spanish moss, and an outstanding collection of Victorian funerary sculpture and monuments. It gained wide fame after featuring in the book and film "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil".

The cemetery's atmospheric beauty has long fed stories of the uncanny, from statues said to move or weep to the sense of unseen company along its quiet paths. These impressions are subjective and easily shaped by the evocative landscape and the emotion of a place devoted to the dead, and they are best regarded as folklore rather than fact.

Bonaventure's true richness lies in its art, horticulture and social history, and in the many notable Savannahians buried here. It is above all a working cemetery and a place of remembrance, rewarding to visitors who come for its heritage and its extraordinary sense of place.

Bonaventure Cemetery is owned and operated by the City of Savannah's Cemeteries Division, whose main office is located on site. It is an active cemetery open to the public, generally daily during posted daytime hours (commonly around 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.), with free entry; guided tours are offered by the city and by the local historical society.

As a place of active burial and mourning, visitors are asked to be respectful and quiet, keep to roadways and paths, refrain from touching or climbing on monuments, and observe posted hours and rules.