Living in Peru : your everyday companion

I was particularly impressed with a lace shawl and veil that was carved on the statue of one of the wealthy women buried here. The cemetery was opened in 1808 and you can see the burial sites of the famous and wealthy families of Lima like the Goyeneche, the Riva Agüeras, the Torre Tagles; the heroes of wars such as Miguel Grau, Peru’s most beloved hero, Francisco Bolognesi and Alfonso Ugarte; artists and writers like Jose Santos Chicano who was buried standing up at his request, Ciro Alegria and Rosa Marino the first person to sing the National Anthem. You will find former Presidents of Peru here like Jose Bernardo de Tagle y Portocarrero (the fourth President of Peru), Manuel Prado and Ramon Castillo (Peru’s Abraham Lincoln) and great industrialists like Henry Mieggs (some say con artist) who was responsible for building the first railroads in Peru.

If you have a great guide like I did you can also see the burial sites of people like Maria de la Cruz de la Luz. She was a Nun who reportedly worked miracles and people still visit her grave site and leave flowers while asking her to perform a miracle for them. She was buried in 1810 which makes her grave one of the oldest which still has its marker so that you can locate her.

The mausoleums were built like mini churches so that the family priest could perform Mass at the burial site before the body was interned in the crypt. This practice started after the city of Lima passed a law to quit burying people in the catacombs under the churches to help prevent the spread of diseases. I imagine that the smell of the rotting corpses leaking up into the churches also had something to do with it.

You will also see that many of the plaques on the above ground catacombs are missing. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is that for a time prior to this decade, the cemetery was rather deserted and became the hangout of the homeless and people doing drugs. They stole some of the more fancy ones to sell to tourists. Another reason had to do with the fight for independence from Spain. The Spanish families (royalists) had a special section of the cemetery for themselves and when the war of independence began they went to the cemetery and removed the plaques for fear that their families would face retribution for supporting the King of Spain. They thought that the revolutionaries would come to the cemetery to see the family names which were on the plaques and set about killing them all.

There are also entire sections dedicated to the burial of children. From the dates listed on the plaques I would imagine that they coincide with the spread of several diseases that ravaged the world during these times. The most spectacular mausoleum of all is a newer one dedicated to the Heroes of the War of the Pacific with Chile. Here many of the men who lost their lives are interned with much honor in marble crypts with bronze plaques. The mausoleum itself is beautiful with stained glass windows and made entirely of marble. It is quite a sight.

The cemetery was closed to sales of plots in the 1960’s but you can find tombs as late as 2005 where the family had purchased the burial plots long ago. Of course if you have enough money they will make room for you here. Unfortunately the cemetery has fallen on hard times and you can see the deterioration everywhere. It is so sad to see these beautiful mausoleums and the statuary in this place comes to these conditions. One can only hope that something will be done to preserve and restore this historically significant cemetery. Once again I want to mention how incredible it was to have a famous genealogist like Frida Galdos Rubatto showing me around. It was an incredible experience and lesson on the history of Peru.

Senora Rubatto became interested in genealogy in 1987 when she read a book presented to her by her aunt called Mis Ascendentes and found information in the book about her family. From there she started investigating her families past and then others. Her interest in the Presbítero Matias Maestro cemetery started in 1998 when she was gathering ancestral information at the archives in the Beneficiencia Publica de Lima and found some references to the cemetery there. From that point she spent five years recording the information on the tombs and trying to link ancestral history through her discoveries. She is reported to be the first person to ever collect information on all the people interned there. In September 2004 she gave a lecture called “Los Tesoros Del Cementerio General de Lima Presbitero Matias Maestro (The Treasures of the General Cemetary of Lima, Presbitero Maestro) at San Marcos University. Her work is truly amazing.

tags : mausoleum cementery Presbítero Matias Maestro

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5 Comments

# Marco Simola says :
23 December, 2009 [ 09:01 ]

# Sandra Arthur says :
23 December, 2009 [ 06:47 ]

All and all a good article. A word of advise; Please check the spelling, mainly in proper names! Not Jose Santos Chicano, but Chocano; Ramon Castilla y no Ramon Castillo.

# Italo Acha says :
26 December, 2009 [ 06:53 ]

Amazing place. A must see while visiting historical Lima. Fully agree that budget is hardly needed to have this sanctuary in better condition.

# Maura says :
28 December, 2009 [ 04:18 ]

I'm telling you, this a really interesting place to see. When you go this cemetary you will be amazed the way it looks. Kinda scary but astonishing at the same time!

I started taking pictures of the statues and graves when suddenly somebody came and almost took away my camera. I didn't know that I had to pay for taking pictures. Still, it's very cheap.

# jose says :
21 June, 2010 [ 10:35 ]

i think it is forbiden take pictures in day tours, but by night i`ve seen almost every visitor with a camera

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