But some of the guests find the atmosphere more than a tad sepulchral, and hanker for the hotel's crumbling past.

ECONOMIST: Pukkah hotels

At the Bergdorf branch, when we visited, we found much mauve velvet, a sepulchral hush and an air of mystery--but no customers.

FORBES: The Cult Of JAR

Lord Justice Leveson, sepulchral in tone, has delivered conclusions that could, or so many fear, become the death knell of a free press.

BBC: Leveson report: Media reaction

Bigelow and Fraser shot the sequence twice, accumulating forty hours of footage that was edited down to twenty-five minutes of sepulchral, green-tinted action what you see through night-vision goggles.

NEWYORKER: Dead Reckoning

His movie has no traction, only a holy, sepulchral glow.

NEWYORKER: A Midnight Clear

Possibly worse than the sepulchral summer of 1974 when England walloped a weak Indian team 3-0 - twice by an innings - and India were skittled out for 42 - their lowest score ever - at Lord's.

BBC: Is India's cricket debacle the worst ever?

Back on the train and continuing north, at Prado station is the Iglesia Los Doce Apostoles (Church of the Twelve Apostles), and moments later just after Hospital station on the right is the Cementerio de San Pedro, containing a remarkable number of extravagant tombstones, sepulchral chapels and mausoleums.

BBC: The cheapest sightseeing tour in the world