The Brazilian football legend was buried in an astonishing cemetery: the building is 14 stories high in Santos, Brazil.
Even when it comes to his grave, Pelé remains the man of all records. The legendary Brazilian footballer was buried in early January, in the largest vertical cemetery in the world, according to the book Guinness Book records. This is the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica, in Santos, Brazil, just a few kilometers from where the football star forged much of his legend. This 14-storey vertical cemetery opened its doors to the public on Monday, May 15. This building has about 14,000 seats, and looks like a luxury hotel or a plush building.
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With palm trees, crisp white tiled floors, and leather sofas, the property features a 24-hour restaurant, aviary, luxurious funeral rooms, and chapel. Not to mention a tropical garden and a waterfall on the hillside. In total, the cemetery claims to have about 14,000 places for the coffins and urns of the deceased. The building intrigues and fascinates: an Internet user even made a particularly extensive virtual guided tour of the corridors of the establishment and in particular of its funeral parlor and its ossuary on Google Maps.
In terms of history, this vertical cemetery was built in 1983 by Argentinian architect Pepe Altstut, with the ambition of solving a recurring problem in the Santos region.
At that time, many funerals took place “in the middle of the mud”, because of groundwater problems, can we read on the site of the establishment, which also largely pays tribute to “Oh Rei“, Pelé, on his homepage.
In a documentary A Tomb with a View (shown at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival), the architect slipped to director Ryan J. Noth that the design of the building was a “personally rewarding experience“. It front of “positive feedback“, he claims to have been encouraged to develop the Necropolis as he went along.
As early as 2003, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, who died on December 29, 2022 at the age of 82 following colon cancer, had also reserved places for him and his family. The player had confided at the time to have chosen this place “which does not look like a cemetery” for his “tranquility”, at the local newspaper At the tribune.
An exhibition of vintage cars on the ground floor
After a tribute paid by more than 230,000 people in front of the coffin during a 24-hour funeral wake at the Vila Belmiro stadium of the Santos Football Club, where the three-time world champion spent most of his career, from 1956 to 1974, the remains of the player were transported through the streets of the city – not far from the centenary mother of Pelé – before being buried in this ecumenical necropolis, during a “private ceremony”.
Pelé will rest on the ninth floor, next to his father, in reference to the number that João Ramos do Nascimento wore when he was also a football player. He will also join his brother, Jair Arantes do Nascimento, who died in 2020, and his daughter, Sandra Arantes do Nascimento, in 2006, according to the site of the main Brazilian TV channel, Globe.
Football fans can now pay their last respects to the champion and visit a “vehicle museum”: you can admire a collection of vintage motorcycles and cars on the ground floor, “next to a garden and a chapel”, indicates the site of the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica. And in this collection, there is also a Mercedes Benz 280-S from 1974 “given to Pelé by the German car manufacturer, on the occasion of the thousandth goal of the king of football”, marked in 1969 by the footballer.