13 cemeteries in Spain to visit. Can you do this type of tourism? I already believe it, human beings have allocated certain spaces for our dead to rest, whether they are people or animals, for a long time.
Today in Actualidad Viajes we take a tour of the main cemeteries of Spain.
Cemeteries of Spain
On this tour we will see some of the cemeteries in Spain that are known for their history and funerary art. Many are part of something known as European Cemetery Route, a network of cemeteries that opens its doors for cultural tours that emphasize the funerary heritage existing on the continent, the history of men and women important to those cities and countries.
English Cemetery of Malaga
Malaga is a city with centuries of history and there have been many towns that have been in these lands. Think about the Phoenicians, the Byzantines and the Arabs, or the arrival of the Christians after the Reconquista precisely. But the English have also been a people present throughout the globe in their years of empire, so in Malaga today there is a beautiful English cemetery.
He created him as an English consul in 1830, given the somewhat derogatory situation with which the dead who were not Catholics were treated. If you were not Catholic there was no cemetery for you, so the consul began to move to build one with an Anglican church as well. Then the St George's Anglican Cemetery or, the English cemetery, the first Protestant cemetery in Spain.
This cemetery It is on the Cañada de los Ingleses, in the Center, on Pries Avenue. He thought of it as a Botanic Park which faces the sea, so among tombs and memorials of various architectural types there are exotic plants.
It has different sectors and in the oldest there are a series of tombs covered in shells, many of them belonging to children. But without a doubt the best known tomb of all is that of Robert Boyd, young Irishman executed for a failed attempt at state golde against Ferdinand VII.
The English Cemetery in Malaga is open from 10 am to 2 pm, Tuesday to Saturday. General admission costs 3 euros.
San Antonio Abad Cemetery
This cemetery It is in Alicante and was built in the 19th century. It attracts attention for its modernist and eclectic architecture and is part of the so-called European Route of Significant Cemeteries.
Alcoy was then a completely industrial city that needed a cemetery. A public contest was opened and the winner was Enrique Vilaplana Juliá, who gives life to a site that mSo a cemetery looks like a city, with streets, avenues and trees. A true city of the dead.
The San Antonio Abad Cemetery also has underground galleries on the perimeter, like catacombs but well ventilated and illuminated. It also has patios for earthen graves and there is a Pantheon of Illustrious Alcoyanos. The paneteons are, precisely, the most renowned works of art in the cemetery. You can visit the Pantheon of the family of Agustión Gisbert Vidal, that of Jaime Tort, that of Salvador García Botí and many more.
In winter the cemetery opens from 7:30 am to 6 pm and in summer it closes at 8 pm.
General Cemetery of Reus
This is a cemetery that does not recognize the religious faith of the dead. It was built to house eternal rest for any deceased person, regardless of the faith he or she professed. That is, it is a non-denominational cemetery.
It was built in 1870. on the land donated by Josep Sardà i Cailà, who was interested precisely in the burial of any person, rich, poor or of any religion. He himself was buried here, as a businessman and politician for the Progressive Liberal Party.
The Reus cemetery It is neoclassical in style and over time it has accumulated many funerary art works, so today it has more than 13 thousand interesting graves. At the beginning it was chosen to place an image of the god Cronus on the main façade, with the idea of it being precisely a non-denominational cemetery: the passage of time, death, an hourglass and the scythe. This image was removed during Franco's time, when the cemetery became Catholic, but its location was returned after the establishment of democracy.
For some time now the city of Reus has been very concerned about the cemetery and the dissemination of this heritage, so it celebrates night visits on All Saints' Day, for example, or also concerts or stage performances of music, dance or poetry.
Be sure to visit the most famous tombs in the cemetery, as well as its chapels, pantheons and mausoleums. The best: the General Prim's mausoleum, the modernist chapel of Margenat, the Pratdesaba tomb, the Macià Vila pantheon, the Civil War grave...
The cemetery is open from 9 am to 1 pm and from 3:30 to 6:30 pm. On Sundays he does it from 9 am to 5 pm.
Almudena Cemetery
On our list of 13 cemeteries in Spain to visit You cannot miss the Almudena Cemetery, the main one in the capital, Madrid. It is located in the Ventas neighborhood, in the Ciudad Lineal district, and It has 120 hectares so it is the largest in Western Europe.
It is called Almudena after the Virgin of Almudena, patron saint of Madrid, and throughout history around five million people have been buried here. This place emerged at the end of the 19th century as a provisional cemetery next to the so-called eastern necropolis that was under construction at that time. Until the construction of the South Cemetery, it was the only cemetery in the capital.
The first attempts to remove the cemeteries from the cities, for a clearly hygienic issue, appeared seriously in the times of Joseph Bonaparte. Obviously the Catholic Church didn't want to know anything, but in the end it couldn't do much.
The current appearance of the Almudena Cemetery bears the signature of Francisco García Nava: modernist style with Gaudian and secessionist airs. Today it is divided into three parts: necropolis, extension and original cemetery. There are also three burial areas: the civil cemetery, the Hebrew cemetery and the Nuestra Señora de la Almudena cemetery where the Garden of Remembrance is located.
Capuchins Cemetery, in Mataró
It is a civil and municipal cemetery, declared Cultural Asset of Local Interest and part of the European route of cemeteries. It all starts in the year 1817, when the Father Guardian of the Capuchin Convent asks the city council to build a cemetery in the upper part of the convent's garden.
In the mid-19th century, the Santa María Construction Board expropriated the Capuchin estate and auctioned it off as a National Asset. It is in the hands of architect Miquel Garriga i Roca, who plans the cemetery throughout the property.
The cemetery is neoclassical in style and adapts to the topography of the land, which is quite difficult. Its design has a central axis, with a huge staircase that joins two esplanades, ordering burial islands on each side. It is on the entrance esplanade where the chapel is located, circular and with a dome, with the stately pantheons.
Among these, the most interesting are those of Francesa Lavilla, Jaume Carrau and Marfà-Mesquera.
Polloe Cemetery, in San Sebastián
It is a municipal cemetery that It is in the highest part of the Eguía neighborhood, in San Sebastian. Of the three that the city has he is bigger. History tells us that until the 19th century, people were buried in churches or on their surrounding land. But the Royal Decree of Charles III stipulated that cemeteries already had to be outside the cities, so that changed things.
Thus, the new municipal cemetery began to take shape in 1874 and opened in 1878. By 1921 it had electric lighting and throughout the XNUMXth century, various extensions were made that changed its appearance. Today you have almost 60 thousand square meters of surface.
Many illustrious people from the Basque community rest here, and the funerary monuments are combined with cypresses, palm trees and plane trees. The cemetery is open every day, between 8 am and 7 or 8 pm.
Ciriego Cemetery, in Cantabria
On our list of 13 cemeteries to visit in Spain there is no lack either the main cemetery of Santander, the Ciriego Cemetery. It is in the place of the same name, in the town of San Román de la Llanilla, near the Cantabrian Sea.
The cemetery was Designed by the architect Casimiro Pérez de la Riva in 1881 and inaugurated in 1893. In the Civil War it was the scene of mass shootings of republicans, Many of them are buried here as unknown, despite knowing their names. Today there is a monument in his memory and several commemorative monoliths.
The cemetery has a cross shaped design in its central part, with a network of streets and streets that give shape to several blocks.
San Froila Cemetery, in Lugo
This cemetery is located on the outskirts of Lugo, near the Jacobean Route, so it is key in the pilgrimage of Santiago's road. It is also part of the Euroepos Historical Cemeteries Route.
It is a relatively new cemetery since was built in 1940 and it was inaugurated in 1948, incorporating the heritage wealth of the city's old cemetery, then closed and demolished.
It was designed by the municipal architect Eloy Maquieira in a clear balanced rationalist style. There are many spaces for reflection, many flowers, vegetation, a great feeling of peace and harmony. There is also a neo-Gothic mausoleum from the second half of the 19th century, part of the old cemetery.
The most important thing about this cemetery is the pantheon of García Abad, French funerary style and Monument to repatriated soldiers (from Cuba and the Philippines).
New cemetery of Igualada
The Igualada Cemetery Park It was built between 1985 and 1994 and bears the signature of Enric Miralles and Carme Pinós. The truth is that it is very different from other cemeteries. It was built on the edge of the industrial estate so the landscape is quite heterogeneous.
The structure is simple: parking and access space, chapel, office, autopsy room, bathrooms and niches. The architects' idea was to create a "city of the dead" in which the living and the dead would interact, so they thought of a place for visitors, as a union of the past and the present.
The Igualada cemetery is a example of organic architecture, integrating the work itself into its environment, so that is the idea of the stepped design that merges the buildings with the landscape. It was excavated in a pit, like a kind of quarry, so there are terraces where visitors can walk.
San José Cemetery, in Granada
This cemetery is located to the east of the city, in the surroundings of the Alhambra and was built in the 19th century. It has its origin in the Barreras cemetery, built in 1805 next to the Alixares Palace, when the city was hit by a Yellow Fever epidemic.
It was built in the Alhambra following the Royal Decree of 1787 in which King Carlos III ordered that all cemeteries be built outside the cities. But it must be said that this cemetery It did not have an orderly growth but rather chaotic, without a master plan in its expansion and order.
In any case it is a A Cultural because it has many treasures of funerary art. You can then tour its structure: the first patio with very valuable family pantheons, the second patio or Patio de los Ángeles, the Third Patio in a romantic style, the patio of the hermitage, the patio of San Miguel, that of San Cristóbal, former headquarters of the the Almunia real de los Alixares, Nasrid palace, the Patio de San Juan, that of Santiago, that of San Antonio and San Francisco and the Patio de las Angustias, for example.
Monturque Cemetery, in Córdoba
It is a municipal cemetery with white walls and a typically Andalusian architecture. It is part of the European Cemetery Route but unlike many of them it is not very large nor does it have funerary art that stands out. It is unique, however, because houses Roman cisterns so that makes it super peculiar.
An epidemic meant that the cemetery had to be expanded at the end of the 1885th century. In these works, Roman cisterns were found in XNUMX, and a particularly huge one, The Great Cistern. It seems that it was used to store and collect rainwater and is the main treasure of this Spanish cemetery.
A good time to visit is All Saints' Day, since There are special days with the theme of tourism and death. Called Munda Mortis and they are cultural and gastronomic days that spread the cultural heritage related to cemeteries and this Christian festival.