Columbarium vs. Mausoleum — What's the Difference?

A columbarium (; pl. columbaria) is a structure for the respectful and usually public storage of funerary urns, holding cremated remains of the deceased.

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

A vault with niches for urns containing ashes of the dead.

A large stately tomb or a building housing such a tomb or several tombs.

One of the niches in such a vault.

A gloomy, usually large room or building.

A dovecote.

A large stately tomb or a building housing such a tomb or several tombs.

A pigeonhole in a dovecote.

(by extension) A gloomy, usually large room or building.

(historical) A large, sometimes architecturally impressive building for housing a large colony of pigeons or doves, particularly those of ancien regime France.

A magnificent tomb, or stately sepulchral monument.

A pigeonhole in such a dovecote.

A large burial chamber, usually above ground

A building, a vault or a similar place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns containing cremated remains.

A niche in such a building for housing urns.

A dovecote or pigeon house.

A niche for a funeral urn containing the ashes of the cremated dead

A sepulchral vault or other structure having recesses in the walls to receive cinerary urns