On May 3rd, 1814, the Necropolis or the General Cemetery of Camagüey was founded. This open-air museum with historical, architectural, artistic, literary and cultural values is 209 years old today.

The Camagüey cemetery has features that make it unique and with its own personality, even without being a patrimonial cemetery.

It is the oldest in use in the entire country. It maintains obituary services and is located on the main access road to the city: the central highway, of national interest.

It preserves the layout of its cemetery as a courtyard attached to the Church of Santo Cristo del Buen Viaje. It is not a cemetery that responds to the name of a patron saint, but to the name of the city.

The typology of pantheons with four fronts supports the importance of our necropolis, as it is the only one of its kind in the country. The architectural similarity of the city of the dead with the city of the living can also be distinguished.

In the necropolis of our city, a historical event of great local and national significance took place, the entry and disappearance of the corpse of Major General Ignacio Agramonte y Loynaz, on May 12th, 1873.

The General Cemetery is inextricably linked to the history of the legendary Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe town and also needs safeguarding and protection in a city declared a National Monument and a World Heritage Site.

For this reason, since 2019, the Office of the Historian of Camagüey city, the Restoration Company, the Cuban Fund for Cultural Assets and the Municipal Directorate of Communal Areas work together to return the values that this site treasures.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García