Bonaventure means good fortune and this cemetery is one of the most visited places in Savannah. Located on what was originally a plantation, it ranks among the most beautiful cemeteries in the country. Old growth oak trees covered in Spanish moss, Victorian grave markers, and gothic sculptures all contribute to its haunting beauty.
This place was made famous by the 1994 novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt and in the movie directed by Clint Eastwood based on the book. The Bird Girl statue which appears on the cover photograph of the book was moved from Bonaventure to Savannah’s Telfair Museum of Art.
Two of the most notable burials are the songwriter Johnny Mercer and the novelist Conrad Aiken. If you are in Savannah, don’t miss the chance to visit Bonaventure – it is definitely worth a visit!
“I gazed awe-stricken as one new-arrived from another world. Bonaventure is called a graveyard, a town of the dead, but the few graves are powerless in such a depth of life. The rippling of living waters, the song of birds, the joyous confidence of flowers, the calm, undisturbable grandeur of the oaks, mark this place of graves as one of the Lord’s most favored abodes of life and light.”
– “Camping in the Tombs,” from A Thousand Mile Walk
