Havana’s Cristobal Colon Cemetery

Photo Feature by Elio Delgado

HAVANA TIMES, March 22 — Declared a national monument for its historical and cultural values, the Cristobal Colon necropolis is the most important cemetery in Havana.

Founded on October 30, 1871, it´s design is based on a project by Calixto Aureliano de Loire y Cardoso, a Spanish architect who lived in Cuba. He died two years after having begun the work and was interred in the first funeral monument, the construction of which he had directed.

The principal promoter of the idea was the Captain General Marques de Pezuela, but the work took the name “Cristobal Colon” (Christopher Columbus) in honor of the admiral whose ashes were supposedly be found in the Havana Cathedral as of the end of the 18th century.

The principal materials used in the pantheons, chapels and vaults are Carrara marble,  granite and brass – though Cuban marble was also used.

The area encompassing the Cristobal Colon cemetery is roughly 125 acres.

Click on the tumbnails below to view all the photos in this gallery

001 The main street and entrance to the Colon Cemetery.
002 Monument to the firefighters began being built in 1897.
003 Monument to the firefighters began being built in 1897.
004 A memorial to Jose F. Mata, of the Havana Architects School
005 Jose Miguel Gomez
006 Zayas
007 Zayas
008 Cespedes
009 The main chapel.
010 The Falla-Bonet Family
011 Conde del Rivero
012 Emilia Teurbe Tolon the woman that embrodered the Cuban flag.
013 Tomb of The virgin Caridad del Cobre, patron of Havana.
014 Tomb of The virgin Caridad del Cobre, patron of Havana.
015
016 The Revolutionary Armed Forces.
017 The March 13 Revolutinary Directorate.
018 Drawing by René Portocarrero – Mosaic of the Vatican.
019 Castillo Medieval. There are only two.
020 La milagrosa.
021 La milagrosa.
022 Built in 1880.
023 Conill
024 The only burial place with this architecture covered in stone.

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