Colonial Cemetery, Savannah, Bezoekersgids & wat te doen in de buurt

Colonial Park Cemetery is a historic burial ground in Savannah, Georgia, opened in 1750 and now a public park in the heart of the city. It served the whole town until it closed to burials in 1853, and it holds early residents, soldiers and victims of the 1820 yellow fever epidemic.

The story behind it

The ground began as the burial place of Christ Church parish and took the dead of Savannah for just over a century. Estimates of the number buried here run to nine or ten thousand people, yet only a small fraction of their markers survive. After burials stopped, the site became a public park in 1896.

Two events left a mark on it. In 1820 a great fire swept through Savannah, and that summer the worst yellow fever epidemic the city had known killed roughly one resident in ten, including several of the doctors who treated them. Many victims were buried together in a mass grave in the eastern section. Then, from December 1864, Union forces occupied the city and camped here through the winter. Accounts describe vaults broken open and stones displaced. Many of the dislodged headstones were later mounted along the eastern wall, where they stand in a row over nobody. Ghost stories cling to the cemetery too, but the documented history is strong enough to hold your attention without them.

What to look for

• The row of headstones fixed along the eastern wall, with their inscriptions facing outward, which no longer mark the graves of the people named on them.
• The older carved stones, where you can read the worn names, dates and epitaphs of Savannah's colonial and early republic residents.
• The brick tombs and vaults, a reminder of the families who could afford them and of the damage done to some during the occupation.
• The open, grassy layout of the park itself, which shows how a crowded burial ground turned into a quiet green space beside the streets.

Tips for your visit

• Allow 30 to 45 minutes to read the stones and walk the paths without rushing.
• Morning or late afternoon light is gentler for photographs and the paths are quieter. Check current opening hours before you go.
• It is a public park and visiting is free. Treat it as a graveyard: stay on the paths and do not make rubbings or lean on old stones.
• The cemetery sits at the edge of Savannah's historic district, so the surrounding squares and streets are an easy walk from the gate.

See it on a quest

Ghosts of Savannah: Haunted City is a good way to see the cemetery in context. You reach it on foot as one stop of a longer route through the city, the app tells you about each place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle on the spot. One ticket covers the whole group, and you can start whenever you like.

The Haunting File: Savannah - Under the Squares takes a different route through the same old streets and squares. Instead of a guide and a fixed tour time, you walk at your own pace, hear the story of each stop where you stand, and work out a puzzle from what is in front of you. One ticket covers the whole group.