Cementerio General

Independencia

About

The General Cemetery in Santiago is easily accessed from the yellow line Cementerios metro stop. From here, you can peruse the sizeable open-air flower market at the entrance before going in. The cemetary was founded in 1819, by Bernardo O'Higgins, a great Chilean hero for whom the main street (also called the Alameda) is also named. It measures 85 hectares and is the final resting place for almost all the Chilean presidents who have passed away (Gabriel González Videla is not buried here, nor is Augusto Pinochet, who came to power after the 1973 coup). There is a large monument by French Sculptor Carrier Belleuse, erected to the victims of an important fire (Iglesia de la Companía) in 1963. The cemetery is something like a series of neighborhoods, with walls of crypts, elaborate mausoleums, simple graves marked by crosses and the flags of favorite soccer teams and also an important memorial to those who were killed in the military dictatorship that ruled Chile from 1973 to 1989. Visitors come to tend the graves and leave flowers, and groundskeepers are present throughout the space. Many important artists and even folksinger Victor Jara is buried here.

Add to Wish List