Object description

The Espada Cemetery was located in the Barrio of San Lazaro approximately a mile west of the city walls, near the cove of Juan Guillen and close to the San Lázaro Leper Hospital. In use from 1806 to 1878, the Espada Cemetery was the first public burial place designed and constructed in Havana; prior to the cemetery, the Havana custom had been to bury the dead in the vaults of the churches such as Iglesia del Espíritu Santo in Havava Vieja. It was named after the Bishop incumbent at the time of design, José Díaz de Espada y Landa. Its boundaries included the present streets of San Lázaro, Vapor, Espada, and Aramburu. Despite being officially called Campo Santo, the people of Havana referred to the cemetery as el Cementerio de Espada. The cemetery was closed in 1878 and demolished in 1908, only a small wall remains of the original structure.