Municipal Cemetery of Saint Joseph (Linares, Spain)

The Municipal Cemetery of Saint Joseph was established in 1876. It is located opposite the English Cemetery in the city of Linares (Jaén, Spain).

The good impression that the Provincial Architect of the province had of the English cemetery was worth to design the new project of the cemetery in 1876, although the works were finished by D. Francisco de Paula Gomez Casado, the Municipal Architect. The new cemetery will be located opposite the English Cemetery. He would be the architect in 1904, and based on the experience gained in the construction of this cemetery would design the plans for the Hospital of “San José and San Raimunda”, where the mortal remains of the Marquis de Linares rest since 1918. This religious- health space involves the most significant emblem of our neo-Gothic architecture.

Similarities with the English Cemetery

The fact that the English cemetery was the inspiration for the project of the architect Jorge Porrúa, suppose one conclusion:

• The bracket that crowns this work exposes the following quote extracted of the Bible: And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Even now says the spirit to rest in their work. Apocal.cap.XIV.vers.XIII. YEAR 1892. It’s unusual to find this type of funerary inscription in Catholic cemeteries. Maybe Jorge Porrúa took the idea of the biblical passages that adorn the tombstones belonging to the English Cemetery.

• Both cemeteries, maintain a common set of elements:
• Main Street, starting from the front door leading into a non-funerary structure.
• Same number of side streets that along with the side streets delimit the central parcel fabric.
• Central space, whose function differs depending on the cemetery in question: decorative in San Jose and religious in the English one.

Design and concept

To start with the design it was carried out a series of calculations on the surface in relation to the 40,000 inhabitants; which gave a mortality rate of 3% (about 1,200 deaths per year).

The concept of internal development is conceived as:

• Top Mausoleums and family graves, also called “Gallery of Illustrious Men graves”. They are located in the central area of the entrance which welcomes members of local renowned families: Bautista Bosistow, related to the English Cemetery, Roselly and Castroverde Piñar.

• Around the large burial, crypts and tombs, there were designed niches for the poorer classes. On the contrary to the English Cemetery, where the ornamentation is almost nonexistent, in the Cemetery of San José of Catholic tradition the difference between powerful and lower social strata is more than evident in the ornamentation of the tombs.

• Several courtyards that line the central area: San Luis, San Miguel, San Juan, San Diego, the “Corralillo” and tha yard graves. On these spaces, ostentatious tombs and crypts are also located.

• Also the project includes landscaped areas; and today we see the native species like cypress (tree sacred to Hades (god of the pagan underworld), and a palm tree on marginal sites, planted by the British to "emulate" the botany of their homes in colonies exotic. This is the case of the tomb of the British Catholic Guillermo English, whose name is linked with the workforce and Remfry Hasselden family, buried in the English Cemetery.

• Chapel in the background, on whose shrine is located one of our greatest paintings of Romanticism, the paint “Ezequiel View”, work of the painter Manuel Arroyo y Lorenzo. It relates the biblical passage in which God puts the prophet in the Valley of Bones, and tells him that blows them life. Skeletons recover their human form and life covering them of muscles, organs, tendons... It’s very unusual to find this kind of works of the Old Testament in a Catholic chapel.

The “Courtyard of San Diego”

Recently, on the occasion of the publication in Spain of the Law of Historical Memory, was erected in the courtyard of San Diego a memorial to the republicans fallen for Spain and democracy that were buried in a mass grave. Those bodies were moved from the wall belonging to the “Corralillo”, where the executions against Republicans were made after the Civil War.

The “Courtyard of San Diego” enjoys protection at regional level, with the category of "Place of Historical Memory" by the Agreement of 27 December 2013, the Governing Council (BOJA nº 26 of 7 February 2014). Inside of the courtyard, there is a monument to the fallens Republicans during the Spanish Civil War and the reprisals in the dictatorship of Franco. It was built on a mass grave, where their human remains rest.

Points of interest

Basic data

• Municipal cemetery
• Catholic
• mainly Spanish and British population
• area of 17.600m2 (1.76ha)
• 9.000 burials from 1892 to nowadays

Important graves and monuments

• Chapel of the Cemetery of Saint Joshep (1892): It contains an oil painting depicting the Biblical passage known as “Vision of Ezekiel” in the valley of the bones. It’s from a painter from Murcia, Manuel Arroyo and Lorenzo.
• Masonic Grave in the Cemetery of Saint Joseph (1942): Tomb with a cross of Saint Andrew, belonging to D. Enrique Naranjo de La Garza, head engineer of the Miner District of Linares-La Carolina since 1886.

Ownership and managing organization
City Hall of Linares


Contacts:

Municipal Cemetery of Saint Joseph
José M. Rodríguez (Director)
C/ Juan Diego de Dios Barrero (Carretera de Torreblascopedro s/n) 23700 Linares (Jaén)
Tel.: + 34 953 60 20 24
E-mail: jmrodriguez@cpandalucia.es

City Hall of Linares
​Yaiza López Sánchez (Responsible of Tourism Area of the City Hall)
El Pósito de Linares. Museo Raphael y Centro de Interpretación de la Ciudad.
Iglesia, 5 - 23700 Linares (Jaén)
Tel.: +34 953 10 01 83 // +34 607 25 75 52
E-mail: turismo@aytolinares.es // ​ylopez@aytolinares.es

Juan Parrilla Sánchez (Technical of Heritage Area of the City Hall) Centro de Interpretación del Paisaje Minero. Antiguo Muelle de Carga de la Estación de Madrid.
Paseo de Linarejos, s/n. 23700 Linares (Jaén)
Tel.: +34 953 60 78 12 // 607 28 83 34
E-mail: turismo@aytolinares.es // jparrilla@aytolinares.es


Opening hours

Summer: 9:00 - 14:00 and 17:00 - 19:00
Winter: 9:00 - 14:00 and 16:00-18:00

Location


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