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Guide to Oporto cemeteries

For centuries, burials in Portugal were usually made inside the churches. But a complex conjugation of facts and ideologies condemned this dangerous habit: after many decades of failed intentions, Portuguese public cemeteries were officially created, in 1835. Therefore, inhumations inside the churches became prohibited. However, it took many years until this law was fully accomplished: popular resistance to outer cemeteries remained very strong. Oporto was not an exception. Nevertheless, Oporto has now several kinds of cemeteries: two public municipal cemeteries, a handful of public parochial cemeteries, eight private catholic cemeteries (six of it inside the municipal cemeteries), one private protestant cemetery (known as the British Cemetery) and a private catholic cemetery in catacombs (closed to burials more than a century ago).

Today, the most important cemeteries are considered museums, as very important places of history and art. Oporto cemeteries, specially those described in this guide, perfectly fit into this pattern. In fact, the most important 19th century Portuguese cemeteries, also called romanticist cemeteries, were conceived to be galleries of remarkable men, pantheons of noble families, archives made of masonry and ironwork. Its pompous mausoleums reflect a particular attitude towards death, so emphasized in the 19th century: the preservation of ones memory. Therefore, each of the following cemeteries became a place of memory and a "city of the dead", containing some of the same paradoxes and virtues from all the other cities.

The British Cemetery

In the 18th century, the British colony was very numerous in Oporto and there was a clear necessity of a private cemetery. In fact, in those days, British subjects were buried without dignity in the riverside, because they were not allowed to have a cemetery of their own. After hard negotiations, a British cemetery was established in 1788, surrounded of high walls. It was the first permanent burial ground outside Oporto's walls, far from houses and churches. However, only in the 1820s this cemetery received the first monuments. These were similar to others built in cemeteries from northern Europe. Therefore, this cemetery became quite different from all the others in Oporto.

S. Francisco Catacombs

This peculiar intramural cemetery was established in the second half of the 18th century, under S. Francisco Church. It's not a modern cemetery, but is quite unique. It can be visited as a part of S. Francisco Museum.

The Lapa Cemetery

This cemetery was officially established in 1833 – a dramatic year in Oporto's History, as a consequence of the civil war episode known as "Cerco do Porto" and the subsequent cholera epidemic. It's considered to be the oldest modern cemetery in Portugal. However, only in 1838 this cemetery was consecrated and - one year later - were built here the first big monuments. In the following decades, this private and elitist cemetery stood as the most important in northern Portugal. Many important figures from the 19th century have here their family tombs, which were widely imitated in other cemeteries. Some of these tombs are quite magnificent.

The Prado do Repouso Cemetery

This was the first public cemetery in Oporto. It was established in 1839, inside a bishop's farm. Curiously, for some years this cemetery stood partially as a farm, because Oporto citizens preferred private cemeteries. Only in the 1850s building of tombs became a regular practice here. Nowadays, the Prado do Repouso (which means "meadow of rest") is one of the most important Portuguese cemetery, in terms of history and architecture.

The Agramonte Cemetery

This cemetery was established in 1855, as a consequence of another cholera epidemic. For some years this cemetery stood as a mere burial ground, without organization. Only in the 1870's it begun to receive monuments, becoming the favorite Oporto cemetery at the end of the 19th century. Its importance is similar to the Prado do Repouso.

O Romantismo na Arte Tumular - video (RTP, 1 de Novembro de 2010)

Guided visits to Oporto cemeteries are available since 1999. Every year, tours are made to the Lapa cemetery, the Prado do Repouso cemetery or the Agramonte cemetery. Please contact Francisco Queiroz for further information.

Prado do Repouso cemetery and Agramonte cemetery, in Oporto, are both members of the ASCE - Association of Significant Cemeteries in Europe

FURTHER information about Portuguese cemeteries in the nineteenth century:

Abstract: In many countries, the introduction of cemeteries constituted a radical change to existing burial traditions. A sporadic secondary literature indicates difficulties in some provincial areas, as reform — often dictated from above, through Royal Edict — became subject to delay and resistence. This paper charts the progress of cemetery establishment in Portugal during a turbulent phase in its history. Through its discussion of some of the obstacles to burial reform, the paper indicates that there may be particular prerequisites required to facilitate smoother and speedier transitions from traditional to newer types of burial provision in the nineteenth century.