Medieval burials followed the custom in Madrid, as in other Christian towns, of keeping the deceased inside the cities, normally near the temples. Some first graves of which there is little evidence. But a decree by Charles III at the end of the 18th century and the subsequent arrival of Napoleonic troops to the capital brought more hygienic practices that soon forced the dead to be taken outside the walls, in order to avoid the diseases associated with the corpses.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Joseph Bonaparte established the construction of two civil cemeteries, one to the north of the city and the other to the south, for burials that were increasingly abundant due to the increase in population. At the same time, the Catholic Church was opening other cemeteries around Madrid, some of which survive today and others disappeared as the capital grew. Many of them have left their mark on the urban street, in the form of streets or large open fields where even stadiums have been built. Others were replaced by apartment blocks, where many of their inhabitants live oblivious to the funereal past of the land beneath their feet.
The first of the civil burial sites was the Northern General Cemeterywhich was built in what is now the Arapiles neighborhood, in Chamberí. It was located beyond the Fuencarral Gate, next to what is now Magallanes Street, next to the Quevedo roundabout. It was reached from the small Arapiles street and occupied what would today be the old Corte Inglés in the area, as well as a Magallanes residential building, almost on the corner with Fernando el Católico.
This cemetery was built under a project by Juan de Villanueva, it had the peculiarity of housing several patios with niches – an unusual form of burial – and it functioned for approximately a century until its demolition around the beginning of the 20th century.
The walls were demolished, but many bodies were left there, because in 1994 650 bodies were found during excavations prior to the construction of a parking lot. “While we were digging, a hole opened and we saw the grave. “I was in a well with four mines arranged in the shape of a cross,” one of the workers who discovered the ossuary recalled in conversation with Somos Chamberí, who claims that many remains had bullet holes in the skull.
The 19th century was a time of construction of numerous cemeteries in Chamberí. In addition to the aforementioned General North Cemetery, there were three other cemeteries of different sizes. Near the place where the Arapiles ossuary was found, the Sacramental of San Ginés and San Luis. And going up what is now Magallanes Street there was an enormous and long wall (on the left) that marked, following the previous one, the limits of the La Patriarcal Cemetery. The place was popularly known as Cemetery Alleyand ran under the official name of Aceiteros Street to the area where Guzmán el Bueno Street currently begins, next to the Metro of the same name. If you read Red Auroraby Pío Baroja, you will find a good description of what the neighborhood was like then.
These places for eternal rest were closed starting in 1884. That year the La Almudena cemetery was opened to accommodate the growing number of deaths recorded in a capital like Madrid, although chronicles indicate that they continued to be used informally for at least at least two more decades.
The fourth Chamberí cemetery lasted a little longer, that of San Martín, San Ildefonso and San Marcos, which occupied the exact space where the Vallehermoso Stadium and the attached municipal sports center are located today. The two sacramentals mentioned in the previous paragraphs would cover the current state Mobile Park, in addition to a good part of Colonia San Cristóbal and the blocks located further south, between Vallehermoso and Magallanes streets, practically up to the intersection with Casarrubuelos.
The closure of all these burial sites caused a period of abandonment and some years that we can imagine being gloomy if we imagine walking through these unmaintained places, full of broken tombs, ruined niches, waiting for an urban planning that would force the exhumation and transfer. of all bodies. This situation was especially noticeable on the land of La Patriarcal, which began to be known as the Field of Skullsbecause it was the scene of children’s ball games and similar, in which bones of those buried there decades ago were found.
The missing cemeteries in the south
The southern half of Madrid housed many more tombs than the north but, unlike those we have already discussed in this article, many survived. This is the case of the current San Isidro Cemetery, the Sacramental of San Justo or that of San Lorenzo and San José. But next to the latter there was another cemetery twin to the one in the North, the General del Sur, built in what is now the neighborhood of Comillas, in Carabanchel.
The southern cemetery had a similar lifespan to its northern counterpart. Built at the beginning of the 9th century, it received burials for approximately a century. Among his best-known corpses was that of Luis Candelas, since the bodies of those executed in the center of Madrid were taken to him.
The place formerly occupied by the General del Sur Cemetery is now the parking lot of a municipal sports center (CDM San Miguel), a public park and a large block of homes, located in the square formed by the streets of La Verdad, Miguel Soriano, and Navahonda. and Antonio Leyva.
The other two missing cemeteries in the south were in Arganzuela, on the Yeseros road, next to what is now the Atocha station track yard, next to the AVE entrance.
On one side was the San Nicolás Cemetery, where the bodies of Calderón de la Barca, Espronceda, Argüelles or Larra rested (which had first been in the North Cemetery and then ended up in San Justo). And right next to it is the larger San Sebastián.
Today, both funerary complexes would cover the blocks located between Vara del Rey and Méndez Álvaro streets, including Canarias street and reaching almost to Bustamante.
Like the previous ones, these cemeteries had to close at the end of the 19th century following the construction of the La Almudena Cemetery. Meanwhile, around it, an eminently industrial neighborhood first and then residential grew.
The location of all these cemeteries is today possible thanks to applications such as this CSIC historical viewer, which superimposes several collections of maps of ancient Madrid with more recent ones.
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