The English cemetery in Malaga is nothing more than a Protestant graveyard in the city which is located on the road to Almeria. Do you want to know how this cemetery was established in Malaga? We will tell you!

History of the English cemetery in Malaga

This cemetery was established in 1831 and was an alternative to the burial of people who did not profess the Catholic faith. To give you an idea of the complications at that time, in Spain it was not possible to bury people who were not Catholic, and it was customary in Malaga that the dead of those who were not Catholics could only be buried upright in the sand of the beach during a simple and discreet body transfer ceremony during the night. The bodies were left there at the mercy of waves and animals, a situation that reminds us a lot of Lord Dunsany’s classic story, “Where the Tides Ebb and Flow”.

The arrival of British Consul William Mark

William Mark, who began his post as consul in 1824, was the one who dedicated himself to locate land that would be used so that members of his Protestant religious community could enjoy a dignified burial. After a period of bureaucratic processes, in 1829 a land was granted to him on the outskirts of Malaga by the municipality. This is how the works began on the first English cemetery, which is also the oldest Protestant cemetery in the peninsular territory.

According to the burial records, the first person who had the honour of getting buried there was the owner of a brig named “Cicero”, Mr. George Stephens, who had accidentally drowned in the port of Malaga in January, 1831. Over the year a wall was erected to close the cemetery, and the first to be buried in that closed space was Robert Boyd, who was shot in the city for being part of the insurrection of the Liberals under the command of General Torrijos, which failed in that same year in 1831.

A burial places for a good part of the history of Malaga

The English cemetery is where many of the most relevant figures in the history and configuration of the city of Malaga are buried and you can discover them today. In fact, three of the five mottos on the Malaga emblem are related to some of these people.

In this Protestant cemetery in Malaga lie the heirs of Joseph William Noble, who donated a hospital to the city and to the sailors who died in the wreck of the frigate Gneisenau.

The English cemetery in Malaga was administered by the British consuls until 1903 when the donation dedicated to it by the British government was withdrawn. In 2006, the property was taken over by the English Cemetery Foundation of Malaga, a non-profit organisation that is responsible for managing and conserving it as part of the city’s history.