Cementerio General de Guatemala

OVERVIEW

The principal cemetery of Guatemala City, opened in 1881 on the west side of the city and laid out with avenues of mausoleums for the coffee-era elite beside the mass niches of the poor. It holds presidents, writers and the victims of the city's earthquakes and its political violence, and it adjoins the city's main landfill.

HISTORY

Built under the Liberal governments that secularised burial; expanded repeatedly through the twentieth century. It remains in daily use.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Guatemalan press and city guides record what the cemetery's own workers say: sounds after dark that they cannot place, figures in the niche walls, and encounters they describe as contact with the dead. These are the workers' accounts as reported; the cemetery is a working burial ground and is written up here as one.

VISITING

Open in daylight hours; a place of burial and mourning first. Guided historical walks are offered periodically.