Home

10%

Almudena Cemetery

Cusco's Almudena Cemetery was built, in part, from the rubble of the Peruvian War, making it both an historic emblem as well as a beautiful resting ground.

By The Taphotourist

It is quite useless to miss you

you are always by my side;

death never kills anybody,

it is oblivion that strikes.

― José Luis Mejía

During the Peruvian War of Independence from Spanish Rule, Saint Augustine church and convent was shelled. Starting in 1845, this rubble was used as partial building material for Almudena Cemetery. The walls at the front of the cemetery are said to have been once used for firing squad during the war.

The cemetery is now around 7 acres with over 23,000 inhabitants, including famed photographer Martin Chambi.

Almudena was a virgin saint who saved a man who sold his soul to the devil for wealth just so that he could give it all away to charity. When the devil came to claim his due, the virgin appeared to protect the charitable man. This interaction is said to have happened in the spot the cemetery now stands.

Children have their own section with specially-sized vaults. Wide latitude is given to decorate the graves making each one unique.

It was explained to me that children sometimes come to the cemetery to work for tips providing water to flowers and generally cleaning up the place.

This boy offered to let me photograph his polishing skills in exchange for a tip, a deal I gladly accepted.

Write your story here. (Optional)

Priests stroll the grounds and are available to pray with you when asked.

A chapel, below, has been converted to a crematorium. Before the creation of the cemetery, Pre-Hispanic funeral practices caused a variety of health concerns. The cemetery is now getting so big that a new mausoleum was started in 2011 to house Cusco’s most celebrated dead.

Footnotes

I have a great love for cemeteries and the various kinds of graves around the world.

Button Label

FootNotes

I have a great love for cemeteries and the various kinds of graves around the world.

Bonaventure Cemetery

Built on Donation Land Claim land just before the wagons started rolling, McHargue is home to some of Oregon's earliest trail settlers.

Read

Spirit Houses of Phang Nga

Locked cemeteries led me instead to explore the meaning behind the shrines that dot Thailand's roadsides. Here, a sampling from a local province.

Read

Forest Hills Cemetery

Nestled at the foot of a mountain, Forest Hill is a tranquil resting place a world apart bustling Chattanooga.

Read

Almudena Cemetery

Cusco's Almudena Cemetery was built, in part, from the rubble of the Peruvian War, making it both an historic emblem as well as a beautiful resting ground.

FootNotes

The haunting statues and Spanish moss-laden live oaks make this cemetery among the most somberly romantic in the world.

Eight acres of forested space provides respite from Iceland’s tundra in the heart of Reykjavík.

The burial place of the last shogun still maintains a Shitamachi atomosphere in bustling Tokyo.

Built on Donation Land Claim land just before the wagons started rolling, McHargue is home to some of Oregon's earliest trail settlers.

Locked cemeteries led me instead to explore the meaning behind the shrines that dot Thailand's roadsides. Here, a sampling from a local province.

Nestled at the foot of a mountain, Forest Hill is a tranquil resting place a world apart bustling Chattanooga.