CEMENTERIO DE COLÓN

A true open-air museum, this cemetery is known for its architectural, artistic and historical value. It is a haven of peace, silence and beauty. Contrary to rumors, this cemetery has never housed the remains of Christopher Columbus! Instead, since 1872, it has been almost exclusively reserved for the intellectual, political and economic elites. Reading the names engraved on the tombs is like reading a social directory: marquis of Bellavista, Counts of Peñalver and the Falla-Bonnet family (related to the Spanish royal family), Count of Jaruco, Count of Rivero, O'Reilly, de la Camara, Santa-Cruz, Montalvo, Marquis of Arana, Marquis of Balboa.. All these graves coexist very well with those of the generals of the wars of independence, the martyrs of the revolution who died before the victory of 1959, the eight medical students shot by the Spaniards in 1871, of the generals of the independence wars Máximo Gómez and Calixto García, as well as Cirilo Villaverde (the author of Cecilia Valdés, the first Cuban novel), Doña Leonor Pérez (the mother of José Martí, Cuba's national hero) and the great Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier. The variety and richness of its monuments, as well as its sculptures made by the most famous Cuban sculptors (Saavedra, Sicre, Cabarroca...) make the Columbus Cemetery one of the most important historical and cultural sites in the Americas. Calixto de Loira was responsible for the monumental entrance portal (21.50 meters high, 34.40 meters wide and 2.50 meters thick) of Romanesque inspiration. Its three arches, through which cars and funeral convoys, pedestrians and cyclists can enter, symbolize the Holy Trinity. Not far from the chapel is the monument of the French Colony of Cuba and the tomb of André Voisin, a French scientist well known here. The latter died on the island in 1964, while giving a series of scientific lectures on agriculture to help the Cuban revolution. The tombs of the cemetery show as many styles as the capital itself: rationalist, neo-Gothic, eclectic; Greco-Roman temples, neo-classic; medieval castles, miniature palaces; Art Deco crypts, Renaissance... and even a pyramid! Thousands of statues too: peaceful virgins in their veils, Christ on the cross, cherubs with outstretched wings... Carrara marble, granite in various colors, bronzes that have been expressing for more than a century, in a language that is most often figurative and almost always expressive, sorrow, compassion, faith and hope.