> Also available in Spanish: https://cubaresearchproject.com/es/all-databases/list-of-individuals-buried-in-the-espada-cemetery-havana/ # Individuals Buried in the Espada Cemetery, Havana This collection indexes individuals buried in Havana's Espada Cemetery, transcribed from surviving memorials. Each entry records the person's name, the date of death, and the plot or niche within the cemetery. Where a headstone still bears an epitaph, the original inscription is preserved on the record, and because so many of those inscriptions name a surviving spouse or family ("*su viuda Da. Catalina Parrilla*", "*sus hijos*"), we have noted those relationships alongside each person wherever they could be read. The **Espada Cemetery** (*Cementerio de Espada*) was the first public cemetery in Havana, opened in **1806** on the initiative of Bishop **José Díaz de Espada y Landa**, after whom it is named. Its creation ended the long-standing custom of burying the dead inside the city's churches. Built in a neoclassical style under the architect Aulet, it took the form of a walled enclosure lined with tiers of burial niches, with painted decoration by the Venetian artist Giuseppe Perovani at its entrance. After the cholera epidemic of **1868** overwhelmed its capacity, the much larger **Colón Cemetery** opened in 1871 to supplement it, and the Espada Cemetery was closed in **1878** for lack of remaining space. It was demolished in 1908, and today only a fragment of the original perimeter wall survives. ## Sources Pujola y Compañía, *[Guía del Cementerio de la Habana](https://books.google.com/books?id=z0MUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA14)* (Havana: Imprenta y Librería "El Iris," 1868). Individual entries were transcribed from surviving memorials indexed on Find a Grave. Some inscriptions are worn or were recorded with transcription errors; names, dates, and family relationships are given as they could best be read, and the full original inscription is shown on each record.