On February 2nd, 1806, the first Havana’s graveyard was inaugurated.

For many Centuries, the temples were the places destined to the graves. No matter the social position, everyone rested in ecclesiastic backgrounds at the end of life. The corpses stench conspired against the public health but this inconvenience was solved in the XVII Century with the abolition of those burials.

In Cuba this come to an end during the government of Don Salvador De Muro y Salazar, Someruelos Marquis, who determined the creation of graveyards out of the churches. The firs of them was the General Graveyard of Havana, known afterwards as the Espada Graveyard, located in the now-a-day streets San Lazaro, Vapor, Espada and Aramburu. The Bishop of Espada paid for all the work expenses and helped to buy three black slaves, mules and wheelbarrows to take the corpses to the graveyard. The construction began in 1804 and almost all the paintings on it were made by the Venetian painter Jose Perovani. Its inauguration was made on February 2nd, 1806. The first burial was the one of the Ex General Captain of the Island, Don Diego Manrique exhumed from the San Francisco Church and the one of Milaza Bishop, Jorge Gonzalez Candamo, exhumed from the Cathedral.The Chapel of the Charity House (current location of the Hermanos Amejeiras Hospital) was the starting point of the caravan the put the two corpses in the new graveyard in two coffins of black velvet and gold.