The Staglieno Monumental Cemetery is located on a hillside of Staglieno, a district of Genoa, a city squeezed between the sea and the mountains in Northern Italy. Considered one of the most fascinating cemeteries in Europe, Staglieno is a veritable open-air museum famous for its monumental sculpture, a huge quantity of majestic neo-classical statues. Friedrich Nietzsche visited the cemetery frequently in the 1880s, Mark Twain praised the cemetery in his Innocents Abroad, Guy de Maupassant and Elizabeth of Austria (the famous Empress Sissi) are just two of the many writers, artists, intellectuals and historic figures fascinated by the dark and mysterious soul of Staglieno. The photographs of the Appiani tomb and the angel on the Ribaudo tomb were featured on the covers of the English band Joy Division. Designed by the architect Carlo Barabino in 1835, and built after his death by Giovanni Battista Resasco, Staglieno opened in 1851 and became a successful prototype because combined the Neoclassical architecture of Mediterranean tradition based on a geometrical arcade with a cemetery amongst a natural setting, typical of Northern Europe. Covering an area of more than a square kilometre it is one of the largest cemeteries in Europe with sections for a Protestant, a Jewish and a British cemetery. At the time Genoa was a major centre of an affluent bourgeoisie wishing long-lasting memorials to remember their work and moral accomplishments. Many protagonists of Italian history are buried there and beetwen them Giuseppe Mazzini, one of the founding fathers of the indipendent Italy, and Oscar Wilde’s wife, Constance Lloyd. The galleries are lined with hundreds of monuments from the 19th and 20th centuries created by sculptors of international renown like Santo Varni or Giulio Monteverde that developed a tradition of funerary realistic sculpture. The two undisputed stars of Staglieno are the Peanut Seller, "La Venditrice di Noccioline" by Lorenzo Orengo and the angel of the "Oneto Tomb" by Giulio Monteverde.