Medieval burials followed the custom in Madrid, as in other Christian cities, of keeping the deceased inside cities, usually near temples. Some early graves of which there is little evidence. But a decree from Charles III at the end of the 18th century and the subsequent arrival of Napoleonic troops in the capital led to more hygienic practices which soon required the dead to be taken outside the walls, in order to avoid diseases linked to corpses.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Joseph Bonaparte had two civil cemeteries built, one to the north of the city and the other to the south, for increasingly abundant burials due to the increase in population. At the same time, the Catholic Church opened other cemeteries around Madrid, some of which remain today and others which disappeared as the capital grew. Many of them have left their mark on the urban street, in the form of streets or large fields where stadiums have even been built. Others have been replaced by apartment buildings, where many of their inhabitants live oblivious to the funereal past of the land beneath their feet.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 the current Arapiles neighborhood, in Chamberí. It was located beyond the Fuencarral gate, next to the current Magallanes street, next to the Quevedo roundabout. It was accessed from the small Arapiles street and occupied what would today be the old Corte Inglés of the neighborhood, as well as a residential building in Magallanes, almost on the corner with Fernando el Católico.
This cemetery was built according to a project by Juan de Villanueva, it had the particularity of housing several patios with niches – an unusual form of burial – and it functioned for about a century until its demolition at 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 up and we saw the grave. “I was in a well with four mines arranged in the shape of a cross,” said one of the workers who discovered the ossuary in a conversation with Somos Chamberí, who claims that many of the remains had bullet holes in the skull.
The 19th century was a time of construction of many 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 discovered, the Sacramental of San Ginés and San Luis. And going up the current Magallanes street, there was a huge and long wall (on the left) which marked, following the previous one, the limits of the Patriarchal Cemetery of La. The place was commonly known as Cemetery Alleyand extended 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 Aurorafrom Pío Baroja you will find a good description of what the neighborhood was like then.
These places of eternal rest were closed from 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 two more decades.
The fourth cemetery in Chamberí lasted a little longer, that of San Martín, San Ildefonso and San Marcos, which occupied exactly the space where the Vallehermoso stadium and the adjoining 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 places caused a period of abandonment and years that we can imagine dark if we imagine walking in these unmaintained places, full of broken tombs, ruined niches, waiting of urban planning which would force exhumation and transfer. .of all bodies. This situation was particularly visible in the lands of La Patriarchal, which began to be known as Field of skullsbecause it was the scene of children’s ball games and the like, in which the bones of those buried there decades ago were found.
The disappeared cemeteries in the south
The southern half of Madrid contained many more tombs than the northern half but, unlike those we have already discussed in this article, many have survived. This is the case of the current cemetery of San Isidro, the sacramental of San Justo or even that of San Lorenzo and San José. But next to the latter, there was another cemetery twin to that of the North, that of General del Sur, built in the current district 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 around a century. Among his best-known corpses is that of Luis Candelas, since the bodies of those executed in the center of Madrid were brought to him.
The place formerly occupied by the General del Sur cemetery is today the parking lot of a municipal sports center (CDM San Miguel), a public park and a large apartment building, located in the square formed by the streets of La Verdad, Miguel Soriano. , and Navahonda and Antonio Leyva.
The other two disappeared cemeteries in the south were in Arganzuela, on the road to Yeseros, next to the current railway depot of the Atocha station, next to the entrance to the AVE.
On one side was the cemetery of San Nicolás, where the bodies of Calderón de la Barca, Espronceda, Argüelles or Larra (who were first in the northern cemetery and then in San Justo) were buried. And right next to it is the largest San Sebastian.
Today, the two funerary complexes would cover the blocks between Vara del Rey and Méndez Álvaro streets, including Canarias street and extended 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. At the same time, around it, an eminently industrial district developed, then residential.
The location of all these cemeteries is possible today thanks to applications like this CSIC historical viewer, which superimposes several collections of maps of old Madrid with more recent ones.
