Two gilded statues of "King Pele" awaited the first visitors at the entrance to the mausoleum of Edson Arantes do Nascimento. Pele had bought a plot in the port city's ecumenical necropolis, where he played for most of his career and built his legend.

The final resting place of Pele, who died on December 29 of colon cancer, is in a "vertical cemetery", the highest in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. His father, brother and one of his daughters are also buried there.

The mausoleum specially designed for him extends over 200 m2 and is reminiscent of a football stadium, with its synthetic turf and photos of the "King". Access is through a two-metre-wide corridor decorated with photos of the former "number 10". It is located on the 1st of the 14 floors of the imposing building.

"We still feel a lot of pain, a lot of nostalgia, but also a lot of pride and joy in front of all the marks of tenderness and respect he receives," Edinho, one of Pele's six children, told reporters including AFP.

The remains of the three-time world champion rest in a shiny golden coffin, decorated with a cross. On the sides, two black panels depict the thousandth goal that Pele had celebrated with his fist in the air.

The son of Brazilian football star Pele, Edson Cholbi Nascimento, weeps as he visits the mausoleum where his father's coffin rests, at the memorial cemetery of the ecumenical necropolis in Santos, Brazil, May 15, 2023 © NELSON ALMEIDA / AFP

For now, only 60 people can visit Pele's mausoleum each day, although Santos hopes to make the vertical cemetery a tourist spot.

Luxurious establishment

The extraordinary necropolis, surrounded by a generous nature, looks from the outside like a large hotel, with its white façade. It offers 18,000 graves to accommodate the coffins of the deceased and a columbarium for urns containing the ashes.

The luxurious establishment designed by an Argentine entrepreneur occupies a four-hectare plot and offers contemplating lounges, rest suites, a 24-hour restaurant, a chapel, a car museum, an aviary and a pond with fish.

From the vertical cemetery, anyone who comes to pay tribute to Pelé can see, less than a kilometre away, Santos FC's Vila Belmiro stadium, where a moving tribute was paid to him by tens of thousands of fans paying their respects in front of his remains at the end of December.

View of the mausoleum where Brazilian football star Pelé's coffin rests, at the memorial cemetery of the Ecumenical Necropolis of Santos, Brazil, May 15, 2023 © NELSON ALMEIDA / AFP

Ronaldo Rodrigues, a 44-year-old small entrepreneur, and his wife Erika Taboaisa Pereira, a 42-year-old legal analyst, were among the first visitors to enter the mausoleum.

"It exceeded all my expectations, it's a very beautiful, well-maintained place," said Ronaldo Rodrigues, a fan.

"I hope a lot of tourists will come and get a little bit acquainted with Pele's history, what he meant to Santos, Brazil, and also the whole world," he said.

© 2023 AFP