The Schoenhofen Pyramid Mausoleum is a tomb in

Graceland Cemetery Graceland Cemetery is a large historic garden cemetery located in the north side community area of Uptown, in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Established in 1860, its main entrance is at the intersection of Clark Street and Irving Park R ...

, Chicago. It was designed by Chicago School architect Richard E. Schmidt in the requested

Egyptian Revival Egyptian Revival is an architectural style that uses the motifs and imagery of ancient Egypt. It is attributed generally to the public awareness of ancient Egyptian monuments generated by Napoleon's French campaign in Egypt and Syria, invasion of ...

style as a family mausoleum for the

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

brewer Peter Schoenhofen.

History

Well-known Chicago brewer Peter Schoenhofen was born in

Dörbach Salmtal is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It became well known countrywide for the football cl ...

, then

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

, in 1827 and died in 1893. His Schoenhofen Brewing Company was among the largest in

in 1880. Schoenhofen's family

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type o ...

was designed by Richard E. Schmidt, a Chicago School architect, in 1893, with construction beginning on July 1 of that year.Details for Building at 4011–4011 N. Clark St
, Chicago Landmarks, ''City of Chicago'', official site, accessed October 12, 2011. The mausoleum is internationally famous and is one of the most photographed mausoleums at

Architecture

The Schoenhofen Pyramid Mausoleum is a steep sided tomb designed, like many of the monuments at Chicago's Graceland Cemetery, in the

style.Kiefer, et al., pp. 30–31. The tomb is a family mausoleum constructed from gray

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

. The pyramid structure is set upon a square base. To the left of the entryway, is an

angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

, on the right of the entry stands a

sphinx A sphinx ( ; , ; or sphinges ) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle. In Culture of Greece, Greek tradition, the sphinx is a treacherous and merciless being with the head of a woman, th ...

. The pyramid's design combines both Egyptian (the sphinx) and Christian (the angel) symbols.Hucke, Matt and Bielski, Ursula. ''Graveyards of Chicago: The People, History, Art and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries'',
Google Books link
, Lake Claremont Press, p. 20, (). Regardless, the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

' Chicago guide book called the angel "rather out-of-place".Sinkevitch, Alice. ''AIA Guide to Chicago'',
Google Books link
,

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company ( ; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, and reference works. The company is based in the Financial District, Boston, Boston Financial District. It was fo ...

, 2004 p. 226, (). The door to the pyramid is styled after the gateways at

Karnak The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak (), comprises a vast mix of temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Construction at the complex began during the reign of Senusret I (reigned 1971–1926 BC) in the ...

, in Egypt, and is 40 inches wide by 84 inches high. A

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

molding of bundled reeds surrounds the door and the door's themselves feature cast

lotus Lotus or LOTUS may refer to: Plants * List of plants known as lotus, a list of various botanical taxa commonly known as lotus, particularly: **''Nelumbonaceae'', a single-genus family of aquatic flowering plants, consisting of just two species; ...

designs with coiled asps around the handles. While the Schoenhofen Mausoleum is a

pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

, and referred to as such, its design is only Egyptian-inspired. The angel on the tomb base is clearly not Egyptian and even the sphinx merely takes its inspiration from Egyptian architecture.Kiefer, et al., pp. 138–40. There are several historical works that are considered related to the Schoenhofen Mausoleum. The Roman funerary pyramid of

Caius Cestius Gaius Cestius Gallus (d. 67 AD) was a Roman senator and general who was active during the Principate. He was suffect consul for the second '' nundinium'' of the year 42 as the colleague of Gaius Caecina Largus. Gallus was the son of Gaius Cestiu ...

is considered a historical predecessor to the Schoenhofen Mausoleum. Perhaps more closely related are the pyramid by

Louis Carrogis Carmontelle Louis Carrogis Carmontelle (15 August 1717 – 26 December 1806) was a French dramatist, painter, architect, set designer, author, and designer of one of the earliest examples of the French landscape garden, Parc Monceau in Paris. He also inve ...

Parc Monceau Parc Monceau (; English: Monceau Park) is a public park situated in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, at the junction of the Boulevard de Courcelles, Rue de Prony and Rue Georges Berger. At the main entrance is a rotunda. The park covers ...

in Paris and a

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty grave, tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere or have been lost. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although t ...

Antonio Canova Antonio Canova (; 1 November 1757 – 13 October 1822) was an Italians, Italian Neoclassical sculpture, Neoclassical sculptor, famous for his marble sculptures. Often regarded as the greatest of the Neoclassical artists,. his sculpture was ins ...

that was erected as the tomb of Maria Christina in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

at the Augustinian Church.

References

*Kiefer, Charles D., Achilles, Rolf, and Vogel, Neil A.
Graceland Cemetery
(

pdf Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

), National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, HAARGIS Database, ''

Illinois Historic Preservation Agency The Illinois Historic Preservation Division, formerly Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of Illinois, and is a division of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. It is tasked with the duty of ...

'', June 18, 2000, accessed October 8, 2011. * Brand, Gregor: Peter Schoenhofen. US-Bierbrauer aus Dörbach. http://www.eifelzeitung.de/redaktion/kinder-der-eifel/peter-schoenhofen-13529/ (in German).

Notes

{{reflist Graceland Cemetery Pyramids in the United States Egyptian Revival architecture in Illinois Chicago school architecture in Illinois Historic district contributing properties in Illinois Buildings and structures completed in 1893 National Register of Historic Places in Chicago Monuments and memorials on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Mausoleums on the National Register of Historic Places 1893 establishments in Illinois Burial monuments and structures in Illinois

History

Architecture

See also

References

Notes