Museum of silence | Valencia, Spain

Guided tours of the General Cemetery of Valencia (by Rafael Solaz).

General Cemetery of Valencia (Valencia, Spain)

General Cemetery of Valencia (Valencia, Spain)
The cemetery was inaugurated in the morning of Sunday 7th June, 1807, and the first deceased was buried the next day.

History of burials

With Christianity, people got used to bury the dead near churches. At first, the graves were on the outside of the temples and along its walls. As the faithful went to the place to do their religion duties, it was necessary to put these early graveyards under cover of the ravages of time. So, soon the halls and the arcade were built, which were the origin of the chapels where the faithful gathered when they wanted to pray over the graves. This burial ground was joint to the church itself through porches and arcades, until it was shut to separate it from the church building but forming a continuation of the religious center itself.

Cemeteries outside the city walls

The parish burial practice remained in Spain until the second half of the eighteenth century. In 1785 Benito Bails had written a work to stress how detrimental it was for people to keep parish cemeteries within towns. In 1786 the councilor Tomás Pascual de Almunia, representative of the nobility, had also advocated the closure of all cemeteries inside the city walls. The proposal had also the approval of the Faculty of Medicine. It was then Carlos III who would issue a Royal Order, on April the 3rd, 1787, outlawing such custom and ordering the setting-up of cemeteries away from the city, as a measure against previous unhygienic and unhealthy practice.

Beginning of the General Cemetery of Valencia

In Valencia, the law was fulfilled in the nineteenth century with the Proclamation of April 26, 1804, issued by Manager Chief Magistrate Cayetano de Urbina. It was from that moment that truly begins the demolition of the parish cemeteries in Valencia and the creation of a General Cemetery for all its citizens.

The profits from the sale of land from parish cemeteries was used to actual construction of the new cemetery. The project was designed by the city architect Cristóbal Sales, in partnership with fellow architect and scholar Manuel Blasco, and was approved by the Fine Art Academy of San Carlos. The new cemetery was located at the mill land Molí de Tell, along the path of Picassent. Work began in July 1805 and concluded in 1807. The cemetery was inaugurated in the morning of Sunday 7th June, 1807, and the first deceased was buried the next day, using a common grave. A year after the official opening the first 80 tombs were rosen.

Cemetery development

After thirty years of its opening all capacities of the cemetery were exceeded tand fully occupied. That's when first enlargements happened.

In 1846 it was built the first Mausoleum: the one of Juan Bautista Romero, followed by the ones of the family Dotres and White-Llano.

In 1876 a new expansion was approved. Around 1880 the terms to build new tombs and porticoes were adopted. According to the original plans from the 1871, it was decided to use the area of over 15.000 square metres in the current section 3. There are the so-called Gates or Columns Gallery - a gallery formed by 170 robust monolithic columns and Doric capitals. The works, which were completed in 1892, were paid by the profits from the sale of the mausoleum lands.

In 1886 the waiting room was built and in 1907, the Patio de las Palmeras. Architects like Sebastian Monleón, Joaquin Maria Arnau, Francisco Almenar, Gerardo Roig, Vicente Sanchoand Antonio Martorell, designed the mausoleums with renowned sculptors of the era: Mariano Benlliure, Ricardo Boix, Eugenio Carbonell, Carreras and Alfonso Gabino, to name some of them, that along with other professionals, helped to give splendor to the current image of the cemetery.

In following years, the common graves were opened to bury the dead, according to the circumstances of death and the time lived. Epidemics of the Nineteenth Century and especially the Civil War (1936-1939) caused the necessity for this type of burial.

In the decades of the 50’s to 80’s, there is an extensive development of the cemetery. The economic boost and the population growth produced an increase in burials and the emergence of more artistic headstones, which, in turn, introduced a changing image of the cemetery.

In March 1988, following the Mortuary Sanitary Police’s new laws, Municipal Crematorium opened. An Avant-garde building, designed by the architect Fernando Romeu, being surrounded by tall eucalyptus, palms and pines. An evocative Garden of Remembrance for the burial of ashes was allocated in Section 11, composed of four quadrants and a pyramidal mound in the center. One of another recent constructions is the City Funeral Home (2000), a modernist design building planned by architect Jordi Pinyol.

Currently the cemetery is divided into 21 sections, with their quadrants, blocks, letters and numbers, individual in each of the blocks. Section 20th, the most recently built, is located in the southern area of the city near the new river channel, next to the Funeral Home and the administrative offices.

Islamic Cemetery

Following the November 1992 law,  the Islamic Cemetery was constructed by section No. 14 in the year 2000 and with the agreement on the Islamic Community of Valencia. This new installation has two entrances. The first is used for family visits, it is connected to the General Cemetery and it exhibits a horseshoe arch at the gate with the Islamic Cemetery identification written in Arabian. The second one is used exclusively for burials and leads directly to the outside, facing the district of San Isidro.

Address

SOCIEDAD ANÓNIMA AGRICULTORES DE LA VEGA DE VALENCIA (SAV)
Plaza Santo Domingo de Guzmán, nº 27
Camino Viejo de Picassent s/n.
46017 - Valencia, Spain

Contacts

Tel.: 96 352 54 78 (extensions 2502-2807-2808)
Fax.: 96 378 22 90

E-mail: sercementerios@valencia.es
Website: www.ayto-valencia.es

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The English Cemetery (Camariñas, Spain)

The English Cemetery (Camariñas, Spain)
The English Cemetery is located in the municipality of Camariñas in the northwest Spanish province of A Coruña.

About the cemetery

Camariñas’ coastline is in the heart of the Costa da Morte (Coast of Death) on the Atlantic coast of Galicia.

This area is notorious for the numerous shipwrecks that have taken place in its waters. One of the most noteworthy events in its dark history was the wreck of the British ship "HMS The Serpent", on November 10th, 1890. Considered the biggest catastrophe that occurred in the Costa da Morte, only 3 of the 175 passengers survived, who were mostly young students from the British Navy.

The priest and the residents of Xaviña, a nearby village, came to rescue the castaways, but all they could do was host the survivors and bury the corpses they recovered there. Later, two British warships were sent there, and they closed the place where their countrymen were buried with a single stone wall. Since then the site has been known as “The English Cemetery”. There is an inscription in Spanish on the stone cross of the cemetery grounds that says:

“In memory of the captain, officers and crew of the HMS Serpent.
172 were cast away here. November 10, 1890”


The English admiralty, in order to show gratitude to the residents, presented the town of Camariñas with a barometer, the priest of Xaviña with a rifle, and the mayor with a watch. Relatives of the deceased came to visit the cemetery for years and the British warships fired a salute whenever they sailed in front of this coast. 28 crewmembers of “The Iris Hull" are also buried in the cemetery. This was another British ship shipwrecked on November 3rd, 1883, seven years and seven days before the wreck of the Serpent.

The cemetery was rebuilt in the year 1990, on the centenary of this sad event. Since then, a tribute to those who died in the waters of the Costa da Morte has been celebrated there every year.

Environment of the English Cemetery

Camariñas is a sailor municipality famous for its bobbin lace. Besides the numerous shops, the results of this handicraft can be seen in the Bobbin Lace Museum. A bobbin lace fair is celebrated in Easter. This international commercial show is chaired by Queen Sofia.

The Costa da Morte has been included in the Natura 2000 network since 2001. The coastline of Camariñas is one of the most extensive, unspoiled areas of interest on the Galician coast. It is one of the most outstanding natural spaces in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula due to its vegetation, which reaches a high level of development, is varied, and has conservation status. A Pedrosa, Reira and Trece are among its most stunning beaches.

This environment is also of particular interest for its birds, in particular the populations of marine birds. Moreover, it is the preferred nesting place for species in danger of extinction, such as the Kittiwake. It houses the unique colonies that are breeding the common Guillemot in Spain. This coastal stretch is an area of transit and a stop for hundreds of thousands of specimens of migratory and hibernating seabird species (Cory’s Shearwaters, Gannets, Cormorants, Guillemots, seagulls, Manx Shearwaters...). Therefore, Cape Vilán’s environment was declared a Natural Site of National Interest in 1933 and it is also a Zone of Special Protection for Birds.

Vilán Lighthouse

One of the highlights of the surrounding area of the English Cemetery is the Vilán Lighthouse. This impressive lighthouse is located in one of the Atlantic’s most dangerous crossings. Since the 15th century, there have been more than 800 shipwrecks and several thousands of deaths in these waters.

The wreck of British ship “The Serpent” accelerated the construction of the new Vilán lighthouse, finished off in 1896 with a budget of 840 Euros. The lighthouse tower is 25 meters high with a granite octagonal floor, which stands on a 105-metre-high crag. It was the largest in Spain when it was built and the first that worked with electric light. The lack of space around the tower meant that the house and the engine room had to be built lower down and a tunnel was dug into the granite to connect them.

The Lighthouse is home to the Analysis Centre of Wrecks and Lighthouses, a coffee shop, a showroom and a tourist information office. The lighthouse can be visited for free.




*Photo source: www.es.wikiloc.com

Contacts

Email: info@camarinas.net
Phone: + 34 981 737 004

Opening hours

Open all year round. No closing time.

Tourist Information Office

Paseo Maritimo – 15123 Camariñas
Email: turismo@camarinas.net
Phone: + 34 981 73 72 04
Website: www.camarinas.net/turismo/en/

Open from June to September

Centre of Interpretation of Wrecks and Lighthouses

Vilán Lighthouse 15123 Camariñas
Email: asociacionempresarioscamarinas@gmail.com
Phone: + 34 647 608 158 and +34 981 736 327

Bobbin Lace Museum


Praza de Insuela s/n – 15123 Camariñas
Email: museodoencaixe@camarinas.net
Phone: + 34 981 736 340

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