SIGNIFICANT CEMETERY

Transcription

1 SIGNIFICANT CEMETERY application form Cemetery: Oficial name: Cementiri de Vilafranca English name: Vilafranca del Penedès Cemetery Cemetery location: C/ Guardiola núm Vilafranca del Penedès Managing organization: Ajuntament de Vilafranca del Penedès Ownership: Ajuntament de Vilafranca del Penedès Cemetery contacts: Web page: Pilar Yagüe pyague@vilafranca.org Phone Anna Guixens aguixens@vilafranca.org Phone Is the cemetery protected by any legal entity (national heritage protection institution or simmilar): (offical institution name, title and status of cemetery) Basic statistic data: Number of graves: Number of funeral urns: 32 Number of vaults: 61 Number of burials: 16 Cemetery size in m2: ,73 m 2 The Vilafranca del Penedès Cemetery has several types of historical funerary monuments, religious, military and its botanical heritage is also remarkable. Basic cultural data: Most of the vaults and graves are from national people except the one of Margaret Von Hase, wife of Paul Von Hase, Commander Officer of the Wehrmach, who was involved in Operation Valkyrie. There are represented also other nationalities from some soldiers posted at the local garrison, from Germany Albany, France, Italy, Denmark and United States. Religions present in the cemetery are mainly catholic.

2 Important graves or monuments: CHAPEL OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY BROTHERHOOD Built in The Rosary Brotherhood had, among its members, all the town s bachelors and its celebrations were held during the first days of May. Each year a group of Castellers (Human Towers) from Valls was invited and they ended up being known as Roser, as a tribute to the brotherhood that contracted them in Vilafranca.

3 BURIAL VAULT OF MIGUEL TORRES The burial vault was built between 1870 and 1880 upon a rectangular plinth and is encircled by an iron wrought fence. The obelisk, with funerary details, stands out from the rest of the construction. The angel, standing on a small pedestal, is holding a sword.

4 BURIAL VAULT OF RAMON MARIMON Built by Josep Domènech in Modernist burial vault composed by three different tombs resting over a plinth and three low columns topped by the figure of an angel sitting in a throne and holding a big wreath of roses. The back of the tomb gives access to the vault s crypt. The author of the sculptures was Ramon Atxé, also the author of the statues on the main facade of the Basilica of Santa Maria.

5 CHAPEL OF ANTONI JANÉ Built by Santiago Güell in This burial vault shows clear Neo-Gothic traits. Its construction is erected around a square plant with buttresses at the corners and a five-faced ribbed apse at the back. At the front, the door threshold and the tympanum represent the Ascension of Christ. Two sarcophagus, protected by canopies and built on the chapel side walls, contain the remains of Antoni Jané and his wife.

6 GARRISON GRAVE In this grave, some of the soldiers posted at the garrison located at what is now Plaça Penedès were buried. The first troop settled in Vilafranca in 1729 and the first barracks were built in 1759.

7 Other aspects of your cemetery for which you consider it to be significant: Cemetery visits are something especial: one can walk around the quiet streets, look at the tombs and mausoleums (family vaults) and admire their construction and ornaments. The cemetery thus becomes a familiar public space that allows us to travel throughout the history of our city. The construction of the cemetery of Vilafranca started in 1839, at the time when the late 19 th century and early 20 th century Romantic ideas started to spread. It was built on the site of an old Capuchin monastery and its property was transferred by the Spanish Government to the City Council in 1837 as a result of the Ecclesiastical Confiscations of Mendizábal. The cemetery has a rectangular floor plan, composing an assembly of funerary constructions, gardens and a public chapel. Renowned architects such as Santiago Güell, August Font or Antoni Pons designed some of its more significant constructions, a good testimony of the social status of the individuals and families buried here. As part of our architectural heritage, the cemetery of Vilafranca recaptures now all its cultural value. It invites us to walk around its streets and recall one of our society s collective spaces for the remembrance of our late-loved ones. One of the peculiarities of the cemetery is that it is not visually dissociated from the outside. On top of the skirting board resulting from the demolition of the Chapel of Our Lady of the Portal (19 th century), there is an iron railing enclosing the cemetery on its southern part and that allows the visual contact between the worlds of the dead and the living. The Vilafranca del Penedès cemetery has also an important botanical heritage containing, among others, Cypress trees, Olive trees, Oval-leaved Privet, European Box, Strawberry tree, pine tree. There are other important vaults that must be taken into consideration as: TOMB TO MATILDE. Commemorative stone designed by Manuel Oms and entrusted by Matilde s widower, Ulpià Dellundé. It is a sarcophagus adorned with garlands at the sides and presided by a praying angel. Since 1958, it contains the remains of the philosopher and writer Eugeni d Ors, founder of the Noucentisme movement (cultural Catalan movement from the early 20 th century). Tomb "Matilde" story. It is said that Eugeni d'ors, writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher chose to be buried in this tomb after hearing a story of Roman Saavedra on this tomb: "Ors goes to the cemetery and hear the story of the origin of that tomb and death of women housed there. It is a story of the romantic mode ; its protagonists, an American newcomer from Cuba and a loving girlfriend, occasionally dead during a syndicalist scuffle trough the Barcelona streets. A mussetiana tomb guarded by a wing angel and covered by a large willow, with this frugal inscription on the stone "to Matilde". Eugeni d'ors knew that, in fact, Matilde was his distant relative, as she was the adopted daughter of his grandfather, who among other things went to "do the Americas." His grandfather was married twice; Matilde belonged to a branch hereditary and Eugeni d'ors on the other side. This led to the burial of the writer was not easy because the tomb belonged to others but eventually the Town Hall regained ownership of the cemetery where they were finally buried: Matilde's husband, his mother and stepfather, it means, the grandfather of Eugeni d'ors. Eugeni d'ors finally rests with his family in a romantic arrangement tomb of Vilafranca. TOMB OF MARGARET VON HASE (1968) Burial place of Margarete Von Hase, wife of Paul Von Hase, Commander Officer of the Wehrmacht involved in Operation Valkyrie, a failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on the 20 th of July of The tomb design follows the Central European style. Baroness Margarette von Funk died at age 70 in San Ramon clinic of Vilafranca after being transferred from Calafell, where he lived since During World War II claimed the construction of a hospital in Berlin for Spanish soldiers returning from the front in Russia. Friends and relatives of Margarette von Hase chose the cemetery of Vilafranca because there could be directly buried in a tomb on the ground following the tradition -central Europe. VAULT OF THE VIA-OLIVERAS FAMILY. Santiago Güell, This is the first work of Santiago Güell in the cemetery at the beginning of his Modernist career. It is an eclectic construction that integrates to the Neo-Gothic style the evident traits of an emerging Modernism. It is formed by a Greek cross plant structure with eight perimetric angles with buttresses. The whole area is covered by a two-slopped ceramic glaze roof. In the main facade, a wrought iron grilled door can be seen, with naturalist ornamentation and, on top of it, a bas-relief representing the souls ascent to the Kingdom of Heaven. The two sides of this door are decorated with representational capitals; an angel is represented to the left and the devil to the right. The gargoyles are ghostly disfigured creatures. BURIAL VAULT OF RAMON MARIMON. Josep Domènech, Modernist burial vault composed by three different tombs resting over a plinth and three low columns topped by the figure of an angel sitting in a throne and holding a big wreath of roses. The back of the tomb gives access to the vault s crypt. The author of the sculptures was Ramon Atxé, also the author of the statues on the main facade of the Basilica of Santa Maria. VAULT OF THE MILÀ SALLENT FAMILY August Font, 1885 In this Neo-Gothic construction with a sober interior, the vault shows a fresco made by Jaume Busquets and a headstone by Menéndez i Pelayo. Manuel Milà i Fontanals ( ), philologist, poet and folklorist, was a key figure in the reintroduction of the Floral Games in The pantheon of the family of Manuel Milà i Fontanals (Vilafranca del Penedès ) has neo-gothic connotations of the exterior in contrast with the sobriety of the interior. It was commissioned by his widow Josefa Sallent following a project by the architect August Font. Manuel Milà Fontanals was Doctor of Philosophy and Professor of Literature at the University of Barcelona. He published important works, an absolute novelty in the Iberian Peninsula, on the Catalan folk song (Romancerillo Catalan, 1853) literature Troubadour (De los trovadores en España, 1861) and the castellana epic (De la pesía heroico-popular castellana, 1874). In 1857 he published a Principles of aesthetics where he collected some of the theories of Kant and Hegel. It should be noted in particular his work as a historian of medieval Catalan literature. Apart from the work on the catalan troubadours, its historical review and critical about ancient Catalan poets are also important BURIAL VAULT OF MARIA TORRES ALMIRALL Built between 1877 and 1880, this is a Neo-Gothic vault located at the end of the cemetery s crossing street. There is an oculus at the rear end facing the third enclosure. From the inside, it is

8 important to note the sgraffito decoration of the walls, the ceiling s polychrome framework and the 1871 oil painting of the Assumption by Claudio Lorenzale, that dominates the altar. Programmes of research, conservation and preservation that are (or will be) taking place at your cemetery: DOCUMENTARY SOURCES: Book: El Cementiri de Vilafranca del Penedès by Marta Allué Martínez, Ramon Arnabat Mata, Fontxo Blanch Canyelles, Jesus Castillo Prado, Ton Salvadó Cabré, Enric Tomàs Guix, Jordi Valls Pedrol Book: Vilafranca del Penedès. La ciutat que ens ha arribat by Joan Rosselló Raventós, Josep Soler Barceló, Pere Marsé Ferrer, Miquel Cols Arnan, Antoni Julià Pons. City council depatment: Servei de Parcs i Jardins de l Ajuntament de Vilafranca del Penedès TECHNICAL SUPPORT Josep M. Feliu PHOTOGRAPHS Servei de Promoció Turística, Serveis de Parcs i Jardins Domènec Freixedas, and connecta