Call for Full Restoration of Tenerife's Historic San Rafael Cemetery

Close to the busy Nuestra Señora de África Market, there's a quiet spot where history speaks volumes. Behind its white walls, the San Rafael y San Roque cemetery, a historical treasure of Santa Cruz, holds the remains of over 40,000 people. Many of these were important figures who waited almost two centuries for a Tenerife historian to bring their stories back to life through books.

Named after the patron saints of diseases, this city cemetery was built in 1810. It was needed to bury thousands who died during a yellow fever epidemic that swept through the city. Since it was no longer possible to bury people inside the Nuestra Señora de Regla hermitage or La Concepción church, this new cemetery was created. It was used until 1916, when the Santa Lastenia cemetery opened.

After 1916, this burial ground, despite being the first cemetery in the Canary Islands and declared an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) in 2004, fell into disrepair. It's unique for being the only cemetery where Catholics and Protestants were buried together, with Protestants laid to rest in an annex called "la chercha." It's also one of the few in Spain without raised niches; most of the deceased lie in the 676 existing graves – 560 in the Catholic part and 116 in the Protestant part.

This old cemetery, found in the Cuatro Torres neighborhood, captured the interest of historian Daniel García Pulido. More than five years ago, he began a huge research project to uncover the names of those buried there. This included not only people in mausoleums or marble tombs but also the many individuals laid to rest without headstones in two massive, 15-meter-deep mass graves.

García Pulido started an extensive research project unlike any before. He retrieved death certificates from the old parish archives of La Concepción church and the Regla hermitage to identify the deceased. He then created sketches of the existing graves, numbering them for easy location, recording their inscriptions, and making individual records for each person. He added biographical details to these records, hoping to help living relatives find where their ancestors were buried.

In 2000, he published his first book, San Rafael y San Roque, a cemetery with history (1810-1916), which included part of the historical burial records. He continued his work, compiling a new list, but it hasn't been published yet due to a lack of funding. "My goal has been to help the San Rafael y San Roque Cemetery Funerary Park family association confirm if their ancestors are buried here, especially in the mass graves, which hold over 40,000 people, alongside Tenerife's notable figures," he explained.

The historian noted that "walking through this cemetery is like taking a stroll through the capital's past." He mentioned that important figures like José María de Villa, Imeldo Serís, Sabino Berthelot, Emilio Calzadilla, Gumersindo Robayna, Secundino Delgado, Juan Bethencourt Alfonso, Irineo González, and Valentín Sanz (who, despite dying in New York, was buried here) were all laid to rest in San Rafael y San Roque.

He added that while many of these notable individuals' remains were later moved to the Pantheon of Illustrious Figures in Santa Lastenia, their original graves remain. Sadly, almost all of them are damaged due to years of vandalism and were not repaired during the Santa Cruz City Council's renovation in 2023.

Because of this, García Pulido and Teresa Laborda, spokesperson for the San Rafael y San Roque family association, are urging the City Council to renovate the cemetery again. They believe this would restore its historical significance and allow it to become a tourist attraction with guided tours, as was originally planned.

They reported, "The Christ of Calvary has not yet been returned to the chapel. The old paths were replaced with sand, and almost all the shade-giving trees have been removed without new ones being planted. Additionally, the bathroom area is unsafe due to poor access, and the doors of 'la chercha' are in very bad shape." They are therefore calling for urgent action to restore this important cemetery, so it can be saved from neglect and opened to the public all year, instead of just on November 1st.