Cementerio de San Fernando, Seville

Cementerio de San Fernando is Seville’s municipal cemetery, a funerary complex created in 1852 and associated with Fernando III of Castile. Its grounds cover about 28 hectares, and the plan forms a south-pointing pyramid. The entrance opens onto an 800-metre avenue arranged in three stretches, divided by two roundabouts.

The opening stretch is called Calle de la Fe; farther along, Calle de la Esperanza continues the route. Look toward the roundabout marked by Antonio Susillo’s crucifix, set upon a rocky recreation of Golgotha. The sculpture was made in 1895 and installed here in 1907.

It is bronze, while the mound is built from piled rocks. Local tradition gave it the name Cristo de las Mieles after honey appeared from its mouth during the summer of 1907. The cemetery’s northern area contains most of its blocks of burial niches, while individual graves and family funeral chapels occupy much of the remaining ground.

The entrance buildings date from designs by Francisco Aurelio Álvarez Millán, who created the gateway in 1884 and the adjoining buildings in 1886. The long avenue, its chapels, niches and remarkable crucifix make this cemetery feel like a planned funerary city.