Blog Post #4 Colón Cementerio. Christopher Miller

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 Colón Cemetery was established in 1876, and named after Christopher Columbus. It was designed by a Spanish architect named Calixto Arellano de Loira y Cardoso. The cemetery consists of 150 acres, and is the second largest cemetery in the world. It contains over 800,000 graves, or the actual place where a body is buried. However, it also contains over 1 million interments, or people wishing to have a burial service in Colón cemetery. As a result, buried remains are typically exhumed after three years, to make room for future burials. It was designed to be laid out in a manner according to wealth, rank and social status. The wealthy and well-known occupy the more prominent spots in the cemetery, while the poor, condemned and non-Christians occupy the outlying areas. There are over 500 mausoleums, chapels and family plots within the cemetery, consisting of many different architectural styles, such as renaissance, neoclassicism and art deco. Colón cemetery contains many memorials for fallen firefights, trade organizations, prominent baseball, chess and domino players, poets, filmmakers and musicians, such as Ibrahim Ferrer Planas of the original Buena Vista Social Club. The designer of the cemetery, Calixto Cardoso was the first occupant of the cemetery and was buried before it was finished. 

The cemetery is open daily from 8-5, and costs 5 CUP to enter. One can also purchase a map of the cemetery for an additional 1 CUP.

I believe the cemetery is a place worth visiting, and I will likely make my way there during my free time.  It provides great examples for different types of funerary architecture, and also shows the importance the Cuban people place on loved ones who have passed. We can also see religious influence, and the Cuban understanding of the after life. 






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