María Sánchez & family

C-16 67-68 Mausoleum

This mausoleum is a clear illustration of the eclectic trends in vogue in the cemetery.

María Sánchez family entrusted Marcos Bausá its design. In 1895 her husband, Juan Rodríguez from the Villalegre neighbourhood and who achieved a high economical status by migrating to America, received burial there.

Bausá divides the construction into three big sections when working in these kind of projects:

The underground crypt, the place for interments. A stone building of classicist inspiration is built above, with adjoining pilasters, alterning stone or glass walls over it; garlands, flowers, mouldings and other allegorical figures scattered in the mausoleum confer it a lively character, apart from a sculpture set with angels, crosses, etc.

Marquis of Teverga

C-9 69-70 Mausoleum

Julián García San Miguel, Marquis of Teverga (1841-1911): Second marquis of Teverga. Son of a rich bussinessman who made his fortune in the American trade and whose title was awarded by Amadeo de Saboya, whom he hosted while visiting the city. Julián García San Miguel was member of the Parliament from 1869 and 1907, during the Bourbon Restoration; lifetime senator from 1907 until his death; he was the most prominent politician and economist of Avilés for many decades. He promoted the channelization of the estuary the advent of the railway, the construction of the new church in Sabugo. As a writer he was the author of Avilés. Noticias históricas.

The hypogeum is made of a shrine on which a high tower terminated in a winged angel lays. It is one of the most remarkable constructions that line the main avenue.

Main avenue

The most important families of the city chose this location for their interments. It became an open air museum due to architectural and sculptural works: it is the largest open air museum in the city.

The middle classes wanted their neighbours and coming generations to know how powerful and important they were, their great economic power, especially those coming from humble backgrounds. We found families of renowned families linked to maritime commerce with Cuba and other Latin-American countries such as the Fernández Balsera, the Zaldúa-Carvajal, the Marquis of Terverga, the Maqua-Escandón, the Carvajal family... have been buried in these places. Here, art glorifies those who die, forgetting about our fear and terror of death.

The most important Asturian artists and sculptors participate in these projects: Manuel de Busto, Cipriano Folgueras, Faustino Nicoli, Ricardo Marcos Bausá, and some from Avilés as Armando Fernández Cueto, Ángel Arias Falcón or Federico Ureña. They use very popular artistic styles in European an American cemeteries. Several of these artists had also designed the houses of these clients, either in the city centre or the indiano neighbourhood of Villalegre.

Many constructors, workshops, marble working shops, etc. work along them developing a huge activity, especially between 1890 and 1920 when the cemetery begins to operate.

La Carriona is known for its carved stone or Carrara marble hypogea, interments in underground crypts of remarkable size. A room ressembling a sarcophagus is built and terminated in a high sculptural set. Chapels and mausolea are located in minor places and in a different way as done in other Asturian cemeteries, while niches have been recently introduced. Thus, hypogea are the most outstanding funeral structure in the Municipal Cemetery of La Carriona.

The Chapel

The chapel is definitely one of the most important elements within the cemetery. Given the historical period, late XIX century, there had compulsory to be a chapel in the “Catholic Cemetery of Aviles”.

It was Ricardo Marcos Bausá who designed it and opened in 1891. Bonifacio Gutiérrez Bayón and Juan Martín, who also worked in the Parque del Muelle bandstand, carried out the works which lasted two years.

Greek cross plan chapel; one of its naves is terminated in a polygonal apse and the other in the entrance with a small staircase from which the gateway can be seen. It is a clear example of neo-Romanesque style: round arches, oculi, etc., simple and austere, as the rest of the common elements at the cemetery, in contrast with the motley and overelaborated style of many hypogeums, tombs and vaults around the chapel.

It is located in the core of the cemetery, a prominent place, in the middle of the main avenue, where the richest and most powerful families of the city were buried. Basusá also used the chapel to distribute around it the avenues running crossways and diagonally which contributes to distribute the interments socially.

La Carriona Cemetery Interpretation Centre

CICLAC

According to the Ricardo Marcos Bausá's original project an annex building is designed to house the chap and the reception. The works by Manuel Solís Solís finished in 1890. It is a building dividen in two houses at different heights, each of it with its own patio, garden, storehouse, etc.

It has been recently restored and it is the headquarters of the La Carriona Cemetery Interpretation Centre and Visitors Centre. La Carriona cemetery is member of the Association of Significant Cemeteries in Europe (ASCE) along with important cemeteries as the Père Lachaise (Paris), Montjüic (Barcelona), La Almudena (Madrid), La Certosa (Bologna), the English Cemetery (Florence), Prado do Repouso (Porto), Pobreje (Maribor), etc.

The chaplain and concierge's households have benn now turned into a venue to promote the knowledge of our past and our funerary heritage, for the joy of the citizens of Avilés and its visitors.

The Civil Cemetery

It was initially built as the “Catholic cemetery”.

Apart from the chaplaincy, the reception, an ossuary or autopsy room, specific rooms for fetus, infants or priests, there was a litlle building -isolated from the rest- that is now used as the Municipal Service of the Cemetery and where non-catholics were buried.

It was for long time abandoned and isolated due to historical reasons until the 80's. On its door, the inscription “Peace for the dead” could be read, which has been preserved and used as a second entrance to the cemetery.

García Morán family

C-33-A | This work by Manuel del Busto has nothing to do with the mausolea like the one he made for Bonifacio Heres.

The Morán family entrust Manuel and his son Juan Manuel this work in 1935 which, no doubt, is one of the most original that can be found in the cemetery.

The García Morán family was, and still is, related to the maritime commerce. They own a store in the heart of the San Juan de Nieva port where they sell maritime items and supplies.

This is the reason why the stern of a boat, the windrose, a rudder and a broken mast - symbolizing the drift and the death - can be found in the decoration of the mausoleum.

The construction of the municipal cemetery of La Carriona

The construction project was made by the municipal architecht of the time: Ricardo Marcos Bausá, who also worked in the Escuela de Artes y Oficios and El Muelle park.

He later worked in Madrid, along with Arturo Soria, in the design of the “Ciudad Lineal”. The new cemetery project was approved in 1884 and from 1885 to 1888 the works of grading and closing were made. The walls surrounding the cemetery were built by craftsmen from the city using stones from the nearby quarries in Bustiello and Pillarno and which cost 600,00 euro, a significant amount for the time.

Square planned, of “Mediterranean” style, the different spaces in the necropoli are distributed around its main avenue. There are two houses – one for the concierge and one for the chaplain -, an utopsy room, a chapel, etc. of eclectic style and simple decoration. Crowns of flowers, the coming of the death, the journey through the other life, lit torches or sandclocks can be seen in the main door and the closing walls.

The cemetery opened on the 1st October 1890 and it was a very important social event in a city that was living a prosperous time.

Ana de Valle

C-31 | Ana Iglesias Arias, known as Ana de Valle (1900-1984) was a remakable poet who published her first poems in the local newspaper La Voz de Avilés at 24 years of age.

Her first book, Pájaro Azul, was published in 1932. She was a great defender of human rights, freedom and women's rights. She suffered repression after the civil war and she went to exile in France, where she lived until 1952 when she came back to Avilés.

A street and a literary award have been named after her.

Her remains lay in a humble grave.

Julián Orbón & family

Art and memory combine in the Orbón's family mausoleum. | C-31 – 4

Julián Orbón (1915-1991) belonged to a family related to arts and music. Julián spent most of his life in America, where the musician delighted the audience with a broad repertory played by the greatests American orchestra. Orbón is credited with composing Guantanamera, the music for the verses of the great Cuban poet José Martí. The Municipal School of Music was named after him.

The family's mausoleum is an example of a different artistic trend: “secessionism” which originated in Vienna at the end of XIX century and in some way related to modernism. Order, balance, geometrical lines and abstract and stylish decoration.

It was built in 1931 by Tomás Acha, architecht in the Real Compañía Asturiana de Minas in Arnao and who also was the author of the Hospital de Caridad along with Manuel del Busto.

José Manuel García González - Marcos del Torniello

C-6 Nº C- P. 2 CL. | There is a mausoleum in remembrance of José Manuel García González, known as “Marcos del Torniello” (1853-1938).

He was born in the nearby Ambiendes, but he lived in Avilés for most of his life. He is one of the most outstanding writers in Asturian and he wrote for several magazines and newspapers, in the university extension courses of the University of Oviedo; he founded the Colegio San José; his most remarkable work is Gozoniega, widely known for its first verse: “Soy de Verdicio,...” [I'm from Verdicio,...]

He enjoyed great popularity and a street, a primary school and a neighbours association have been named after him.

His remains lay in a humble mausoleum.

Bonifacio Heres

Lawyer, Avilés Mayor from 1874 to 1879 | 72-73

Being a wealthy man, he committed the prestigious Asturian architecht Manuel del Busto to design his mausolem. Historicism was an artistic style very used at the moment. Reproducing ancient shapes and models of our history is clearly represented in the “city of the living”: the neogothic church of Santo Tomás, in Sabugo, is a clear example

La Carriona cemetery is no stranger to these artistic trends. Thus, this interment looks like a neogothic temple's cloister and a sarcophagus in the arcosolium. Professor Carmen Bermejo highlights the symbolism of this structure, for which the cemetery itself serves as a cathedral; it located in the central nave, resembling a medieval interment inside a church. The client's initials and a skull and snakes can be found at the centre of the structure.

Armando Palacio Valdes

C-14 6 | Cemeteries are not just “art spaces” but places for remembrance, too; places that make us think of our history, to look at people and deeds that belong to our past.

That is exactly what happens with the grave of Armando Palacio Valdés: it both artistic for its value as building and a place for because of the importance of this famous writer.

Armando Palacio Valdés (1853-1938) was born in Laviana, but the family moved to Avilés shortly after. He was one of the most important writers of Spanish realism; he was member of the Spanish Royal Language Academy and a prolific author. Some of his novels were set in Avilés (Marta y María or La novela de un novelista). His mausoleum, where there always is a bouquet, was built in 1941 after a design by the sculptor Jacinto Higueras, who was awarded with the Sculpture National Prize. It represents Demetria, a character from his novel La Aldea Perdida [The lost village] and a medallion with his figure that reads (extracted from the aforementioned novel):

“Viajero, si algún dia escalas las montañas de Asturias y tropiezas con la tumba del poeta, deja sobre ella una rama de madreselva. Así Dios te bendiga y guíe tus pasos con felicidad por el Principado”.

It was built some time after the cemetery, after the City Council decided to build it in honor of the city's most famous writer. It cost 240 euro.

His memory lives on among the citizens of Avilés and the most important theatre, a street and a school have been named after him.

Marquess of San Juan de Nieva

C-11 5 | This is one of the most spectacular, popular and interesting structures in the cemetery.

Armando Fernández Cueto designed the crypt and the project. He also designed several buildings in Avilés, as the “Gran Hotel” - Banesto present headquarters- in front of the Parque del Muelle. Cipriano Folgueras, sculptor of renowned prestige, also participated in this project. He was the author of the famous Valdés Salas estatue, the founder of the University of Oviedo, whose statue is in the central courtyard of the old university building.

Made of marble, there is a cinerary urn covered by a cloth with a Latin cross. The coat of arms of the family is in the front. A huge angel with extended wings and a trumpet announcing the death terminates this rich decorated set.

The municipal cemetery of La Carriona

Late in the XIX century, the city of Aviles was living a prosperous and intense period thanks to the maritime activitiy and the commerce with America.

The first industries appeared, too. Urban sprawl overboarded the limits of the old fortified city: the new harbour in San Juan de Nueva, the channelization of the estuary was done, the food market was inaugurated what contributed to link the Sabugo neighbourhood with the city and the broadening was made between Rivero and Llano Ponte street.

By the middle of the century, the old churchyards of San Nicolás and Santo Tomás gave way to a new one, located by the new church of Sabugo, but legal provisions on health and the growth of the city obliged to look for a new site.

The place chosen to build the new catholic cemetery of Avilés is La Carriona, a high location, airiy as it was said at the time, and far from any inhabited place.