King Pelé made his last trip on January 3 and he has been resting since Tuesday in his final resting place. Only, the greatest footballer of all time could not have a burial like the others. She had to live up to the character, and she does. Edson Arantes do Nascimento who died on December 29 at the age of 82 rests in the “Memorial Necropolis Eucumênica de Santos”. The “vertical cemetery” of the city of Santos, the highest in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
It is not a cemetery like the others but a 10-storey building housing 18,000 graves to accommodate the coffins of the deceased and a columbarium for the urns containing the ashes. The construction of this unique place in the world began in 1983 and it was inaugurated in 1991.
The establishment designed by an Argentinian entrepreneur occupies four hectares of land and offers meditation rooms, rest suites, a 24-hour restaurant, a chapel, an automobile museum, an aviary and a pond with fish. In this cemetery are buried Pelé’s daughter Sandra Arantes, who died of cancer in 2006, her brother Jair Arantes, known as “Zoca”, and former striker Antonio Wilson Honório, known as “Coutinho”, who played alongside Pelé 1962 and 1963.
Pelé acquired his claim in 2003 and chose this location for two reasons: 1. It doesn’t look like a cemetery; 2. the building offers a breathtaking view of the Vila Belmiro, the Santos stadium where the triple world champion played for so long. His body will rest in a mausoleum specially designed for him, 200 m2, reminiscent of a football stadium, with its synthetic turf and photos of the “King”.
