Glasgow has for a long time struggled to compete with Edinburgh, the nation’s capital within the tourism trade but in the previous few years the city of Glasgow has been recharged by enormous inward investment much of it directed towards the expansion of tourism.
The Glasgow Garden Festival of 1988 attracted much attention and the city, in 1990, was awarded the prestigious European City Of Culture award. Following this the financial revival has helped create certainly one of Scotland’s most sophisticated cities with an enormous variety of first class tourist attractions. Whereas these excellent tourist attractions are actually well worth spending some time at there are numerous different older sights which are often overlooked and one among these is the great Glasgow Necropolis.
The Glasgow Necropolis
Like Père Lachaise Cemetery, in Paris, Glasgow Necropolis is rather more than a graveyard. This remarkable Victorian graveyard has a selection of the finest sculptures within Glasgow. Situated east of Glasgow’s St. Mungo’s Cathedral the graveyard is rather straightforward to find especially as it’s situated upon one of the few hills in the city.
Throughout the 19th century Glasgow was one of the most important ports in the world and in a similar fashion to the city of Liverpool in England vast quantities of money were pumped into into civic projects by those that had gained amazing wealth. In Glasgow a number of businessmen, commonly referred to as the “Tobacco Lords” held a lot of the wealth of the city.
In 1831 a contest was held to determine the finest design for the Necropolis which was to be like Père Lachaise and sixteen designs were entered. The Tobacco Lords, ever keen to show their extreme wealth, appeared to compete with their gravestones with increasingly ornate sculptures and superb artistic works. Most of the sculptures represent something relating to the lifetime of the person buried below. The most striking monument is on the very top of the hill, the large monument to John Knox. Walking round Glasgow Necropolis you can see extremely good artistic endeavors including a marble figure of a seated Charles Tennant and artistic creations in the Art-nouveau model including a Celtic cross by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Other Glasgow Places Of Interest
Many of the hidden points of interest of Glasgow are associated with the world renowned artist and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The city of Glasgow is Mackintosh’s place of birth and is most famed for his furniture and distinctive buildings, many of which are located across the city. Even though many of his plans have been for private habitats there have been a number of public buildings designed by him including his most masterpiece the Glasgow School of Art.
Though many people would be in agreement that the Willow Tea Rooms contain the most well-known of his artistic creations a visit to only the Willow Tea Rooms and the Glasgow School of Art is inadequate to achieve a complete understanding of the uniqueness of his talent.
Other associated visitor attractions to visit include the most important “House for an Art Lover” in Glasgow’s south side, The Mackintosh Church at Queens Cross, The Lighthouse, Martyrs’ Public School, Scotland Street School Museum, the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and Hill House in Helensburgh.
I would hope that you will soon be thinking about enjoying a vacation in this fascinating city and you will be pleased to discover that there are a few superb Glasgow hotels and guest houses offering not too expensive rooms. Although hotels in Glasgow city centre are somewhat expensive those establishment found a little further away can be far less costly.