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Queen Artemisia commissioned the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven
Wonders of the Ancient World, in 353 B.C. for her partner, Mausolus, a Persian
governor.
Illustration via Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.

 * Travel




6 MEMORIALS BUILT BY WOMEN—AND THE LOVE STORIES BEHIND THEM

One was a wonder of the ancient world; another inspired the Taj Mahal. The
stories behind these monuments have stood the test of time.


ByRonan O’Connell
Published February 13, 2023
• 9 min read
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While many fine buildings were famously constructed by men to celebrate their
beloveds—from India’s Taj Mahal to Italy’s Torrechiara Castle—there are few such
tributes commissioned by women. Those that do exist were built by women who had
to buck tradition or challenge societal norms. 

In order to honor their darlings with temples, tombs, sculptures, and stepwells,
they broke royal customs, protested equality laws, or shifted architectural
trends. Here are six sites around the world where women have dared to
memorialize their love. 


THE ROYAL MAUSOLEUM AT FROGMORE, ENGLAND

When Queen Victoria’s 42-year-old husband, Prince Albert, died suddenly from
illness in 1861, the queen was inconsolable.

Queen Victoria commissioned the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore near Windsor Castle
to memorialize her late husband, Prince Albert.
Photograph via The Print Collector, Getty
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“She spent the rest of her life honoring his memory—draping herself and her
court in black, withdrawing from public and social engagements, and surrounding
herself with images of her late husband,” says British historian Tracy Borman,
author of Crown & Sceptre: A New History of the British Monarchy. “The grieving
queen also sought solace by commissioning statues and memorials in his memory.”

Soon after Albert’s death, the queen began work on a mausoleum at Frogmore, a
royal estate near Windsor Castle, which wasn’t completed until 1871. Albert was
laid to rest here and she was buried next to him in 1901, a departure from the
royal tradition of being interred at Westminster Abbey or St. George’s Chapel in
Windsor.

Tourists cannot enter the tomb. But they can view the stately building from the
manicured grounds of adjacent Frogmore House, which will reopen to the public
later this year. If they could see inside, they’d find a colorful interior
inspired by Albert’s passion for Italian Renaissance art and, as its
centerpiece, a splendid sarcophagus topped by marble effigies of the queen with
her beloved Albert at her side.


KODAI-JI TEMPLE, JAPAN 

In the forested foothills of Kyoto’s Higashiyama Mountains, a graceful temple
commemorates the son of a peasant who rose to become a samurai and helped unify
Japan after centuries of feudal warfare. His name was Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

One of Kyoto’s most visited temples, Kodai-ji was commissioned by Hideyoshi’s
grieving wife, Kita-no-Mandokoro, after his death in 1598. Also known as Nene,
this widow became a Buddhist nun and lived for 19 years at Kodai-ji, where her
grave is located. Although Hideyoshi was buried at a different site in Kyoto,
his spirit resides at Kodai-ji with his wife, says David L. Howell, professor of
Japanese history at Harvard University.

The widow of a celebrated 14th-century samurai had the Kodai-ji Temple erected
in his honor in Kyoto, Japan.
Photograph by Wolfgang Kaehler, LightRocket/Getty
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.


(Fall in love with 10 heart-shaped places around the world.)

“Although it’s hard to look into the hearts of long-dead warlords and their
spouses, it does appear Hideyoshi and Nene were devoted to one another,” he
says. “They remained together for about 37 years until Hideyoshi’s death. Like
other powerful men at the time he had various concubines—he desperately wanted
to produce a male heir—but he never repudiated Nene.”


‘MEMORIAL TO A MARRIAGE,’ NEW YORK

In New York City’s Woodlawn Cemetery, two women’s love is sculpted in bronze and
frozen in time. Called “Memorial to a Marriage,” this bronze mortuary sculpture
was created by American artist Patricia Cronin in 2002, when same-sex marriage
was illegal in the United States.

At New York City’s Woodlawn Cemetery, “Memorial to a Marriage” is a bronze
sculpture of sculptor Patricia Cr...Read MoreRead More
Photograph by Danny Ghitis/The New York Times/Redux
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.

The work depicts Cronin with her then partner and now wife, Deborah Kass
embracing beneath a bedsheet, and sits atop their future burial plot. Cronin
describes it as the “world’s first marriage equality monument."

“Most LGBTQ+ people, their families, and allies live in communities here in the
United States and many countries abroad where homophobia thrives,” Cronin says.
“If you deeply love someone, this work is for you, regardless of your sexual
identity.”

Woodlawn Cemetery is open to the public and holds frequent guided tours. A
bronze replica is permanently displayed at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in
Glasgow, Scotland.




HUMAYUN’S TOMB, INDIA

An inspiration for the Taj Mahal, Humayun’s Tomb in east Delhi, India, is a
marble-and-red-sandstone treasure that tells the story of an emperor and the
enduring love of his wife.

After Humayun, ruler of India’s Mughal dynasty, died due to a fall in 1556 at
age 47, his first wife, Bega Begum, commissioned this tomb. It was the first
large building made in Mughal architectural style—a blend of Indian, Persian,
and Central Asian design elements, says Najaf Haider, a professor of Indian
history at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
Left: Humayun’s Tomb—seen from the Char Bagh Garden in Delhi, India—was built by
the widow of a 16th-century Mughal ruler. The building provided architectural
inspiration for the Taj Mahal.
Right: Humayun’s white marble cenotaph sits in the center of the tomb’s main
chamber.
Photographs by Steve Winter, Nat Geo Image Collection

Haider says Begum, who became known as Haji Begum after a visit to Mecca, was
“greatly attached to her husband and his memory,” he says. “As long as Haji
Begum lived, she looked after the tomb.” 




MAUSOLEUM OF HALICARNASSUS, TURKEY

In the Turkish seaside city of Bodrum, tourists can wander the remains of a
2,300-year-old masterpiece. The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus was one of the Seven
Wonders of the Ancient World and rivaled Egypt’s pyramids in size and grandeur,
according to Daniel Sherer, visiting lecturer in architectural history and
theory at Princeton University.

Sherer says first-century Roman author Pliny the Elder wrote that this mausoleum
was commissioned by Queen Artemisia in 353 B.C. It was a grand gesture and
eternal home for her partner, Mausolus, the ruler of Caria, a territory of what
is now Turkey. In Renaissance and baroque art, Artemisia is often depicted
supervising the tomb’s construction, Sherer says.

(See 19 of the most romantic destinations in the world.)

An account by first-century Roman historian Valerius Maximus depicts Artemisia
as so devoted to her late husband that she mixed the ashes of Mausolus in a
liquid which she then drank, “thereby making herself a living, breathing tomb,”
Sherer says.


RANI-KI-VAV STEPWELL, INDIA

Members of the Scottish Ten project work to digitally record the sculptures and
terraces of Rani-Ki-Vav stepwell in Patan, India.


Photograph by Sam Panthaky, AFP/Getty
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.


On the outskirts of Patan, a small city in western India, the earth opens up to
exhibit an intricate wonder. A series of staircases take visitors past four
pavilions and 1,500 hand-carved sculptures as they descend more than 65 feet
into Rani-ki-Vav stepwell.

India once had thousands of stepwells, used to gather water for drinking,
washing, and bathing, before British colonial forces destroyed most of them.
Also known as the Queen’s Stepwell, Rani-ki-Vav was commissioned in the 11th
century by Queen Udaymati, and extensively restored in the 1980s. She dedicated
this jewel to her late husband, King Bhimdev I, who ruled a swath of what is now
India’s Gujarat State.

Ronan O’Connell is an Australian journalist and photographer who shuttles
between Ireland, Thailand, and Western Australia.
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