Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 28 October 2024.- A modern concept of cultural inventory requires considering all of those assets that, in a broad, but also transversal, sense, contribute to shaping the identity of a people, a society, a territory. Hence, today cemeteries have become the object of analysis as sites of heritage, and even artistic, interest for cities. They have even become first-class tourist resources, in a contemporary vision of travellers. In this context, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria can boast of having cemeteries of great historical interest that, at the same time, reflect the cultural memory of the city. Let’s start with its oldest cemetery.

The Vegueta Cemetery

The Vegueta Cemetery is the oldest graveyard in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, bringing with it more than two centuries of history. In operation since 1811, this site was built in the midst of the ravages of yellow fever in the city. Due to a cholera outbreak in 1851, there were more than two thousand corpses that had to be buried in mass graves due to the lack of adequate space in the city. They still remain very present in the local collective memory.

Churches, the typical places for burials at the time, were then overwhelmed. Furthermore, in 1787 the Spanish crown prohibited burials in religious temples. In the short and medium term, the Royal Decree by Charles III led to a change in the urban layout of the cities, which had to integrate these funerary spaces into their urban layout. The capital of Gran Canaria was no exception.

City authorities then chose a piece of land outside its walls to establish its first cemetery. It was the plot known as Los Callejones, or the Back Alleys, which until then had been used for banana plantations, on the southern edge of the founding homestead of Vegueta.

In the mid-19th century, the first reforms were undertaken in the cemetery, which since then has acquired an architectural and heritage dignity that has ended up enriching the city's cultural heritage. The architect, urban planner, and painter Manuel Ponce de León, a native of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, designed the entrance portico. It is a classical style structure, which has the definitive verses of Mariano José De Larra engraved in stone on its upper part: "The temple of truth is that at which you gaze/turn not a deaf ear to the voice that warns you / that all is an illusion save for death". The cemetery's entrance, built earlier, also has a pedigree: It is attributed to the sculptor and architect Luján Pérez, born in the Gran Canarian municipality of Guía.

A documentary by the filmmaker Amaury Santana, "Cementerio de Vegueta. El guardián de la memorial" ("The Vegueta Cemetery: The guardian of memory"), details the history of the funeral site, which is a living memory of the capital of Gran Canaria. Travelers can find true heritage and artistic jewels here in this designated Asset of Cultural Interest.

Monuments, tombstones, and a wide range of ornamentation with funeral motifs make up a historical corpus distinguished by the prevalence of neoclassical and modernist styles, although these are not the only styles represented there. In the cemetery, two areas can be distinguished, fundamentally, by the social order of the deceased. In one area are the resting places of the wealthiest, while in the other, the deceased are of more humble origin. The differences between these two areas in the site can be distinguished without too much effort.

The Vegueta cemetery also holds the bodies and memories of dozens of notable personalities in the history of the city. An example of this is the doctor, anthropologist, and founder of El Museo Canario, Dr Chil y Naranjo. Also of note is Mayor Antonio López Botas, remembered for his commitment to promoting culture and for having ordained, among other things, the foundation of the Gabinete Literario de Las Palmas, or the Las Palmas Literary Office. Also buried in this Vegueta cemetery are the island artist and prominent representative of modernism Néstor Martín-Fernández de la Torre, the modernist poet Tomás Morales (noted by the sculpture El Implorante, or the Imploring One, by Antonio Macho, originally from Palencia) and the tenor Alfredo Kraus, born in the capital of Gran Canaria and a universally recognized talent. Of particular note in this last tomb is the sculpture in which Lourdes Umérez immortalised her famous movement as Werther in the opera of the same name. Another sculpture by the Genoese artist Paolo Triscornia di Ferdinando pays tribute to the 74 victims of the sinking of the Italian ship Sud-America in a tragedy that occurred on the coast of the city in 1888.

The English cemetery

Just over four kilometres from the Vegueta cemetery, in the popular neighbourhood of San José, there is another cemetery of great historical value to the city. It is the English cemetery built in 1834. This was a year, an era, in which the British presence in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria was one of the identifying features of the city. The influence of the port, the commercial traffic with the United Kingdom, and the English's mobilisation in the island society ended up filtering through and transforming its culture, urban planning, and social life.

A group of important families associated with large British companies in the capital of Gran Canaria drove the building of this cemetery. Its need was also determined by the difference in religion that the British, being Anglican Protestants, maintained with the Catholic society of Gran Canaria. For this reason, its investors opted to buy what was then a vacant plot of land on the outskirts of the city, thus guaranteeing an adequate space for their funerary rites.

The burial of British people in this space became very common in the 19th century and well into the 20th century when a new boom in European, British, and Nordic tourism was felt strongly in the Islands. Although these ceremonies have decreased, they have continued to occur in this second decade of the 21st century. The truth is that the most distinguished English families who left their mark on Gran Canaria rest here, as do other illustrious tourists from the United Kingdom who died on the islands where they had come to undergo treatments in spas and try to prolong their lives with the benefits of the Canarian climate.
Also buried here are some deceased of other nationalities whose families have preferred this environment, typical of Protestant customs. This is attested by crosses, gravestones, and accessory decorations in a cemetery that remains closed to the public, but one in which guided tours can be organised. In fact, in recent times, it has become one of the most unique tourist resources in the city.

Cemeteries with personality

The capital of Gran Canaria has other cemeteries, each of which has its own personality. One of these is the so-called Puerto cemetery, which opened in 1942 and, in addition to maintaining its usual services for the local population, reserves space for the Korean, Bahá'í, Jewish, and Islamic communities.

Located on Avenida de Ansite, in the upper part of the city, between the Escaleritas and La Minilla neighbourhoods, this cemetery offers visitors views from above of the northern gate of the city and the docks. These are the same docks that, in times of intense activity of the international fishing fleet, led to the formation of communities in the city that currently have consolidated into their own identities, such as the Korean community. The capital of Gran Canaria is also a traditional destination for the settlement of Hindu merchants. Due to its proximity to the African continent and port activity, it is also a useful stopover point for citizens of very diverse origins. That is because it is not just tourism, historically a more recent phenomenon in the Canary Islands, that defines the strong cosmopolitan character of the city.

Jewish families also use other cemeteries in the city for their funeral services, such as Tafira (built in 1939) and the San Lázaro cemetery, which also has space for Muslim rites. This last cemetery, the most modern (dating back to 1960), is also the largest and the most used today by island society.