The Necropolis Cristóbal Colón, also called the Cementerio de Cristóbal Colón, is one of the most important cemeteries in the country for its artistic, cultural, architectural and historical values. It is considered to be one of the most important cemeteries in South America in terms of history amd architecture, being second to La Recoleta in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is also one of the three largest on the world, preceeded by Staglieno in Genoa, Italy and Montiuic in Barcelona, Spain. Numerous personalities of great national significance are buried in the Necropolis Cristóbal Colón. Elaborately sculpted memorials,one more beautiful than the others, perpetuate the memory of these personalities. It is an outdoor museum that offers the visitor the possibility to appreciate the art, particularly the sculpture. With an area of 56 hectares and 56.000 tombs, it is the largest of the 21 existing cemeteries in the capitol.

From the founding of the Villa de San Cristóbal de La Habana to the beginning of the 19th century, the vast majority of the burials were taking place mainly in the courtyards of the churches or inside of them, when the dead person was one of the military, political or religious personalities. Even though, some provisional cemeteries outside the city were opened in great epidemies, the spread of some diseases in the city was charged by the folk with the proximity of the burials in the churches to their residences.

In 1804, the Spanish King Ferdinand VII prohibited the burilas in churches, obliging the building of official cemeteries far from the urban centers. It was essential to avoid the epidemics like the cholera and the yellow fever, so that the authorities in Havana decided to build a big cemetery out of the city that would be able also to accommodate the victims of any yellow-fever outbreak in the future.

CEMENTERIO DE ESPADA

On the initiative of Bishop Juan José Díaz de Espada y Landa, the first official cemetery of Havana was built outside of the city walls, very close to the Caleta de Juan Guillén (current cove of San Lázaro) in 1806. This extramural area was a desolate beach, where the the leper patients, were treated in some huts. During the period of 1744 and 1760 the Real Hospital de San Lázaro was built and subsequently, in 1781, the leprosium was completed in this region. Even though, the building of the Real Hospital invigorated the life around the San Lázaro street, the area was still a deserted urban fragment on the transition between the old and new expanding city. Thus, the building of the first cemetery of the city on an area, bordered by the Aramburu, the Vapor and the San Lázaro streets, seemed to be a good choice.

In honor of its founder, the public adopted to call the cemetery Cementerio de Espada, even though its official name was the Cementerio General de La Habana (General Cemetery of Havana). For a long time, the land, embracing the cove of San Lázaro, stayed a section of the city that was not preferred as the residential area, but the Espada Cemetery expanded over years, reaching a total area of about 43.000 m2. The flat surface of the area was ideal to execute the burials into walled niches, covered with tombstones.  Some of these tombstones that are the first funerary works, produced in Havana, can be seen in the City Museum of Havana. In 1878, the government ordered to close the Cementerio de Espada, as it was full. In 1901, the transfer of the remains to the Cementerio Cristóbal Colón that was inaugurated 15 years ago, began.

In 1908, the American Military Governor ordered to demolish the remaining walls of the cemetery; thus, the land was urbanized.

HISTORY OF THE CEMENTERIO CRISTÓBAL COLÓN

It was Marqués de Pezuela, the Governor General of Cuba, that initiated the project to build a bigger cemetery in Havana in 1854, as the Espada Cemetery became insufficient to take all the burials. According to his project, the remains of Christopher Colombus would be transferred to the new cemetery that would be named in honor of the great admiral.

When the French gained control over the Hispaniola in 1795, the remains of Christopher Columbus were moved from Santo Domingo, where they rested as the Genovese sailor wished so, to the Havana Cathedral. The ashes of the admiral were preserved in a funerary monument in the central nave until 1898, when the Spanish rule ended in Cuba, so that the remains of the great explorer were returned to the Cathedral of Seville in Spain.

Finally in 1866, the construction of a new cemetery was authorized by a Royal Decree and it was decided to set up a commission, consisting of civil servants, engineers and doctors, that would determine the area where the new cemetery would be constucted. In 1860, the commission finished the acquisition of the land, so that it was decided to open a public tender for the construction of the Cementerio Cristóbal Colón (Christopher Columbus Cemetery).

From the seven projects presented, the project of the Galician architect Calixto Aureliano de Loira y Cardoso was declared the winner. According to his original project, the necropolis would be built on a rectangular area of about 500.000 m2, but the commission modified Calixto de Loire’s project later by reducing its dimensions. The cemetery would look like a giant cross that would cover the entire area with four minor crosses, constructed in the spaces between the arms of the central cross and the cemetery walls.

The construction started in 1871. However, its architect  Calixto Aureliano de Loira y Cardoso died one year later, becoming the first resident of the cemetery. The fundemental parts of the cemetery were completed after 15 years of work in 1886.  Even though, the construction process continued, burials were accepted after 1872.

When the cemetery was devised, any construction within the 1.000 meters from the perimeter walls of the cemetery, was prohibited by the so-called Cement Zone Law due to sanitary reasons, but this restriction was modified in 1921, allowing the construction within the 1.000 meter area around the cemetery, as the city had grown considerably, requiring the expansion of the necropolis. In 1922, the cemetery expanded to the east. In 1924, when this expension, intended for temporary burials, was opened to public, the total area of the cemetery increased to about 560.000 m2. In 1940s, the wall on the west of the cemetery that divided the area reserved for epidemics and non-catholics from the rest of the cemetery demolished.

After the revolution the Cementerio Cristóbal Colón was nationalized to eliminate the privatization of the social services and to end  the discriminatory practices towards people with lower incomes. In 1987, the Cementerio Cristóbal Colón was declared a National Monument due its richness in architecture, sculpture and decorative arts, along with the exponents of the social and historical evolution.