Espada Cemetery

The Espada Cemetery is a disused cemetery located approximately a mile west of the city of Havana, Cuba, near to the coast and close to the San Lázaro Leper Hospital. In use from 1806 to 1878, the Espada Cemetery was the first burial place formally designed and constructed in the Havana region; prior to the cemetery construction, the Havana custom had been to bury the dead in vaults of the Churches. 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 (Holy Field), the general populace of Havana typically referred to the cemetery as el cementerio Espada (the Espada...