Alto de São João Cemetery

Alto de São João Cemetery (Portuguese: Cemitério do Alto de São João) is the largest cemetery in Lisbon, Portugal, located in the freguesia (civil parish) of Penha de França, in eastern Lisbon (formerly, within the parish of São João).[1][2]

Cemitério do Alto de São João
Details
Established1833
Location
CountryPortugal
Coordinates38.729°N 9.122°W / 38.729; -9.122
TypePublic
Size22 hectares (54 acres)
Find a GraveCemitério do Alto de São João

Similar to Prazeres Cemetery, it is the resting place for many prominent figures, from literature to the arts, from science to politics, from working class to nobility, side by side with anonymous citizens who are buried and cremated there. The cemetery is public and receives residents from several freguesias in the capital.[1][2][3][4]

The cemetery is composed of mausoleums, temporary and perpetual graves, crypts, ossuaries and columbaria. Also noteworthy are the Crypt of Combatants of the Great War and the Memorial of the Tarrafal concentration camp victims.[1]

History

Alto de São João Cemetery was founded in 1833 after the outbreak of cholera in the city, along with Prazeres Cemetery. It was originally named Cemitério Oriental de Lisboa (Eastern Cemetery of Lisbon).[1][4]

The country's first crematorium was built here in 1925, but would eventually cease to operate for political and religious reasons in 1936. It only resumed operation in 1985 after pressure from the city's Hindu community. There have already been cremated several public figures such as José Saramago, Nobel Literature laureate and Álvaro Cunhal, anti-fascist politician and minister in the first four provisional governments after the Carnation Revolution.[1][3][4]

Famed novelist and diplomat Eça de Queiroz was buried at Alto de São João Cemetery prior to his reinterment in his family mausoleum in Baião Municipality.[5]

Notable burials or cremations

References

  1. "Cemitério do Alto de São João". informacoeseservicos.lisboa.pt (in European Portuguese). Lisbon City Hall.
  2. "Monumentos: Cemitério do Alto de São João". www.monumentos.gov.pt (in European Portuguese). General Directorate of Cultural Heritage.
  3. "Cemitério do Alto de São João | Atracções | Beato, Lisboa". Time Out Lisboa (in Portuguese).
  4. "Núcleo Histórico do Cemitério do Alto de São João". www.patrimoniocultural.gov.pt (in European Portuguese). Património Cultural.
  5. "Death records of São Julião Parish (1900)". digitarq.arquivos.pt (in European Portuguese). Torre do Tombo National Archive. p. 26.
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