Dying in Valparaiso: Barbers

The Sociedad de Peluqueros (Barbers' Society) tomb can be found in El Cementerio de Playa Ancha

Dying in Valparaiso: Murder, Made Easy

Right at the very top of this photo of El Cementerio de Playa Ancha are various vaults that are abandoned, falling apart and no longer have the little inscribed tombstone to cover the shelf like space in which the coffin is placed. Some of these vaults are at ground level and are actually quite deep. This area of the cemetery is the furthest from the entrance that you can get and pretty isolated. You can drive all the way up.

My friend commented, "This would be a great place to dump a body. Drive here, throw it in and brick it up. No one's going to notice."

Just a thought.

Dying in Valparaiso: The Personal Touch

Dying in Valparaiso: El Cementerio de Playa Ancha III

So now back up to Playa Ancha on our cemetery tour.

The cemetery is very much a "people's" cemetery. Burial plots in an open field can be purchased and then it's up to the family to decide what kind of grave should be created. And when I say 'created' I really mean it-plots are anything but exact in dimensions and the graves are a colourful mix of wackiness.

Each grave is surrounded by a white picket fence or something similar. The plot is then adorned with football flags, streamers of all colours , flowers or whatever the family deem appropriate. A white cross is the only constant. Some families build a kind awning over the grave in an attempt to recreate an old fashioned mausoleum. It's really quite an interesting concept in burial and not something I've ever seen before...

It's all a bit of a muddy mess in winter with spare concrete coffins lying around...

The only non-white cross I saw...and it's surrounded by a baby's cot...


A mausoleum for a family without a tonne of money...


A Santiago Wanderers fan (local Valpo football team)




An empty field, ripe for death development...fantastic sea-views, mature garden- what else could you want?

Dying in Valparaiso: El Cementerio de Playa Ancha II

Back to El Cementerio de Playa Ancha now. The cemetery is still very much in use as the city's main final resting place. There are vast amounts of modern vaults in the middle of the cemetery. They look like a 60s Soviet housing estate. It's kind of weird. They're identified by letters, numbers and cuarteles, meaning barracks. There's no romanticism about death in this part of the cemetery.

Here you can see some of the blocks. There are many more.







It's sometimes easy to look at the vaults and forget what you're looking at. I like this photo because it reminds me.

Dying in Valparaiso:El Cementerio de Playa Ancha & Its Most Popular Resident

We'll start off our trip around El Cementerio de Playa Ancha by re-visiting an old friend, Emile Dubois who I posted about a while back.

Dubois has become a Valparaiso popular saint. Depending on who you believe, he was a murderous liar or an innocent man framed for crimes he didn't commit. No one is ever going to know the truth.

Dubois' shrine is covered in little plaques, left by his followers and giving thanks for his generosity in conceding them favours. These range from the return of a loved one to the conception of a child. Most favours aren't specifically stated...they remain a secret between Dubois and his fan.

Here's the positive version of his story:

Lighthouse + Cemetery: A Good Combination

If you do fail to avoid the rocks and drown, at least it'll be a short trip to El Cementerio de Playa Ancha. I'll be posting about this bizarre place as soon as I can be bothered (I'm being a bit of a lazy blogger at the moment. Sorry.)

Lighthouse to the left. Cemetery to the right.

Dying in Valparaiso: Cemetery Numero II 2

Concluding, for now, our tour of the Valparaiso Cemeteries on Cerro Panteon here are some more photos of Cementerio Numero 2. The totally manic, weird and fascinating Cementerio de Playa Ancha is coming soon.

Dying in Valparaiso: Cementerio Numero II

It's been awhile since I last blogged about Valparaiso's cemeteries. So here's a post about Cementerio Numero 2.

The highly originally named Cementerio Numero 2 is so called because it was, erm, the second Catholic cemetery after Cementerio Numero 1. Officially opened in 1845, the cemetery actually started life as a common graveyard around 1840, having been acquired by the council from the Venegas family.

Perhaps as a sign of Valparaiso's growing wealth, the tombs in Cementerio Numero 2 are possibly more ostentatious and, well, fancypants, than in Cementerio Numero 1.

The cemetery shares the same mixture of nationalities as Numero 1 and Disidentes with Spanish, German, British, Serbian, Portuguese, French and other nationalities' tombs.

Cementerio Numero 2 is located directly behind the Cementerio de Disidentes on Cerro Panteon. It is easier to find the entrance as it's just opposite the ex-carcel, on Calle Dinamarca.

As you walk from Numero 1/Disidentes, on the left hand side there's what appears to be an old entrance to Numero 2, apparently long closed. Behind the gate is a porch with some pretty interesting moldings. Stop and look if you walk past.




The main entrance is here:


Here are photos of some of the tombs:

Familia Polanco Saenz, presumably part of the Polanco family that gave its name to Cerro Polanco and later Valparaiso's only vertical Ascensor.








Part of the Atkinson family, who gave their name to Paseo Atkinson.


More photos to come another day.