Two Cemeteries, Two Cities: San Miguel and the English Cemetery

Before you read · Two men, one beach

Málaga, 11 December 1831

General Torrijos was a Spanish soldier. He and his men wanted a new government for Spain. On 11 December 1831, soldiers shot them on a beach in Málaga.

One of the men was Irish: Robert Boyd. The Spanish men were Catholics, and they went to the cemetery of San Miguel. Boyd wasn’t a Catholic, so he went to a new cemetery: the English Cemetery. Two cemeteries, one story.

Text 1 · A garden for strangers

Avenida de Pries, Málaga

The English Cemetery is in Málaga, near the Malagueta beach. It is a quiet garden with tall trees, flowers and old stones.

It opened in 1831. Before that, there was no cemetery in Málaga for Protestants. They weren’t Catholics, so people buried them on the beach, at night.

William Mark was the British consul in Málaga. He wasn’t happy about the beach, and he asked for some land. The new cemetery was on a hill, outside the city walls.

The first person in the cemetery was Robert Boyd. He was a young Irishman.

Text 2 · Famous graves

Writers, poets and sailors

Gerald Brenan was a British writer. He was born in Malta in 1894, and he died in 1987. He loved Spain, and he lived near Málaga for many years.

His wife, Gamel Woolsey, was an American poet. She was born in the United States, and she died in 1968. Today they are in the cemetery together.

Jorge Guillén was a Spanish poet. He was born in Valladolid in 1893, and he died in Málaga in 1984.

There are also more than forty German sailors. Their ship sank near Málaga in a storm in 1900.

Text 3 · San Miguel

Capuchinos, Málaga

San Miguel is the old cemetery of Málaga, in the north of the city. It opened in 1810. It is big, with white walls, tall trees and beautiful stone tombs.

Many rich families of Málaga are there. Amalia Heredia was born in Málaga in 1830, and she died in 1902. She was rich and generous, and she made a famous garden: La Concepción.

Jane Bowles was an American writer. She was born in New York in 1917, and she died in Málaga in 1973.

Today San Miguel is a museum. There are visits at night!

Plan your visit

Go there!

The English Cemetery: Avenida de Pries 1, near the Malagueta. Bus 11 goes there from the Alameda Principal. Check the opening times on the cemetery’s website.

San Miguel: Plaza del Patrocinio, in Capuchinos. Look for visits on the city’s website.

Your task: write about a famous person you like, in four sentences. Start like this: … was a … . He / She was born in … in … . He / She …

Before you read

Málaga in the early 1800s

Two hundred years ago, Málaga was a busy port full of British merchants, sailors and wine traders. Most of them were Protestants. In Catholic Spain, the cemeteries were for Catholics only, so when a Protestant died in Málaga, there was nowhere to bury him.

Read the text, then do the practice.

Two men, one beach

San Andrés, 11 December 1831

On the morning of 11 December 1831, General José María Torrijos and 48 companions were shot on the beach of San Andrés. They had been lured to Málaga by false promises of support for a rising against the absolute rule of Ferdinand VII, and they were captured soon after they landed.

In death they were divided by religion. The Spaniards were buried in the Catholic cemetery of San Miguel; Robert Boyd, the only Protestant, was buried in the new English Cemetery. Two cemeteries, two cities: one for the Catholic city, one for the foreigners who traded in it.

The text · A garden for strangers

Avenida de Pries, Málaga, 1831 to today

For many years, Protestants who died in Málaga were buried on the beach, at night and without a ceremony. It was said that some were even buried standing up in the sand, and sometimes the sea uncovered the bodies. Many people, Spanish and foreign, thought this was shameful.

The British consul, William Mark, decided to change this. He asked the Spanish authorities for a piece of land on a hillside outside the city walls, and in 1831 the English Cemetery was founded there. It was one of the first Protestant cemeteries in Spain.

The first person to be buried there was Robert Boyd, a young Irishman. He had joined General Torrijos in a rebellion against King Ferdinand VII, and in December 1831 he was shot with Torrijos and his companions on the beach of San Andrés. The Spaniards were buried in the Catholic cemetery of San Miguel, but Boyd, a Protestant, was buried in the new English Cemetery.

Over the next two centuries, many more people were buried there: merchants, doctors, and children who died of cholera. More than forty German sailors were buried together after their ship, the Gneisenau, was wrecked against the harbour wall in 1900, and four airmen of the Royal Air Force are buried there too. The Spanish poet Jorge Guillén chose to be buried there because he saw it as a place where different cultures met.

Two of its best-known graves belong to writers. Gamel Woolsey, an American poet, lived with her husband, the British writer Gerald Brenan, in Churriana, near Málaga. She died in 1968 and was buried in the cemetery. Brenan left his body to the university’s medical faculty, and years later his remains were buried next to hers, under the words “Escritor inglés, amigo de España”: English writer, friend of Spain.

Since 2010 the cemetery has been looked after by a foundation, and today it is visited by people from all over the world. Its cypress trees, flowers and old stones make it one of the most peaceful places in the city.

A garden that began as an act of decency, and became a place where strangers belong.

The other cemetery · San Miguel

Capuchinos, 1810 to today

For centuries, the people of Málaga were buried inside or next to the city’s churches. In 1787 a royal order was issued by Charles III to stop burials in churches, for reasons of health, and new cemeteries were built outside the towns. In Málaga, the cemetery of San Miguel was consecrated in 1810 and completed in 1829, to an elegant neoclassical design by the architect Mitjana.

In the 19th century, as the city grew rich, its great families were laid to rest here in grand mausoleums: the Heredias of the ironworks, the merchants of wine and raisins, and with them poets, painters and musicians. The American writer Jane Bowles, who died in Málaga in 1973, was buried here too.

And Torrijos? In 1842, his remains and those of his companions were moved to a crypt under the obelisk in the Plaza de la Merced, where they still lie. Today San Miguel is run as an open-air museum, and night visits and theatrical tours are organised there.

Want to know more?

Read the full story of Gamel Woolsey, discuss one of her poems, and play the gamebook A Stone for a Stranger in our premium lesson for B2–C1 students.

Gamel Woolsey and the English Cemetery (premium) →

Plan your visit

Getting there and what to see

Where: Avenida de Pries 1, a short walk east of the Alameda Principal, near the Malagueta. Bus 11 runs from the Alameda. Check the opening times on the cemetery foundation’s website before you go.

San Miguel: Plaza del Patrocinio, in Capuchinos, about half an hour’s walk north of the centre. Look out for guided and night visits. On the way, stop at the obelisk in the Plaza de la Merced.

What to find in the English Cemetery: the grave of Robert Boyd in the oldest part; Gamel Woolsey and Gerald Brenan; the grave of the Gneisenau sailors; Jorge Guillén; and the small Anglican church of St George in the middle of the garden.

Your task: write a short guide (80–100 words) for an English-speaking visitor: what the cemetery is, how it began, and two graves to look for. Use at least four passives.

Text 1 · Burial at the water’s edge

Málaga, before 1831

In early nineteenth-century Spain, consecrated ground was reserved for Catholics. Protestants who died in Málaga, most of them British merchants, sailors and their families, could be buried neither in the parish churches nor in the city’s cemeteries, and so they were taken down to the shore and buried in the sand, at night and without rites.

Accounts of these burials are grim. It is said that some of the dead were buried upright, and that the sea, or the dogs, sometimes uncovered them. How often this happened is impossible to know, but the stories are widely reported, and they appear to have shaped the way the British community remembered those years.

William Mark had lived in Málaga for eight years before he was appointed British consul, and he is reported to have regarded the beach burials with great disgust. He secured a plot of land on a hillside outside the city walls, and in 1831 the cemetery received its first burial. From the start it belonged to the British government, a status that protected it through two centuries of Spanish politics. It is often described as the oldest non-Catholic Christian cemetery on mainland Spain, although claims to be “the first” of anything should always be treated with a little caution.

Text 2 · Strangers, rebels and friends

1831 to today

Its first occupant was Robert Boyd, a young Irishman who had joined General Torrijos in a liberal rising against the absolutism of Ferdinand VII. When the rebels were shot on the beach of San Andrés in December 1831, Torrijos and his companions were taken to the city’s San Miguel cemetery; Boyd, as a Protestant, was separated from them in death and buried in the new English ground.

On 16 December 1900, the German training ship Gneisenau was driven against the harbour breakwater in a storm. Many Malagueños are thought to have helped in the rescue, many taking the injured into their homes, and in gratitude Germany later paid for an iron bridge over the Guadalmedina, still known as the German Bridge. The dead were buried together in the English Cemetery, though figures vary: the cemetery’s own foundation speaks of 42 officers and crew, while other sources give 62.

The Spanish poet Jorge Guillén asked to be buried here, seeing it as a meeting place of cultures, religions and ways of mourning. Gamel Woolsey, the American poet, has lain here since 1968; her husband, Gerald Brenan, left his body to medical science when he died in 1987, a decision some have unkindly attributed to thrift, and his remains were later laid beside hers. The Irish hispanist Ian Gibson has called it the most beautiful cemetery in the Mediterranean. Since 2010 it has been run by a foundation, and it is now one of the city’s historical sites.

Text 3 · The city of the living

San Miguel, 1810 to today

If the English Cemetery is a garden of strangers, San Miguel is often said to be a mirror of Málaga itself. It was the city’s answer to a royal order of 1787, issued by Charles III, that ended burials inside churches on grounds of public health. Consecrated in 1810 and completed in 1829, it is attributed by the city’s tourism office to the architect Mitjana, and built in a restrained neoclassical style.

Its patios record the city’s fortunes with unusual precision. As industry and trade enriched a handful of families, their mausoleums grew grander: the Heredia pantheon, where Amalia Heredia, the creator of the La Concepción garden, lies with her family, and the tombs of the wine and raisin merchants, which a researcher at the University of Málaga has traced in a route of 22 graves. Poets and painters lie here too, and the American writer Jane Bowles, who died in Málaga in 1973.

The city lists General Torrijos among San Miguel’s illustrious dead, and he was indeed buried there in 1831. Yet his remains are reported to have been moved in 1842, with those of his companions, to the crypt beneath the obelisk in the Plaza de la Merced, where he is still remembered every December. A small lesson in reading sources: a list of “who lies where” can be true of 1831 and false of today. Now run as an open-air museum, with night visits and theatrical tours, San Miguel is thought by many to be one of the most beautiful historic cemeteries in Spain.

Plan your visit, and write

A guidebook entry

Visit: a day of two cemeteries. Start at San Miguel (Plaza del Patrocinio) and find the Heredia pantheon, then walk down to the Torrijos obelisk in the Plaza de la Merced, and on to the English Cemetery (Avenida de Pries 1). Find the Gneisenau monument, Boyd’s grave in the original walled precinct, Guillén, and Woolsey and Brenan. Then cross the Guadalmedina by the German Bridge (Puente de Santo Domingo) and read its plaque.

Write (220–260 words): an entry for a guidebook on Málaga’s two historic cemeteries that is lively but honest about what is known and what is only said. Use at least five reporting structures, and report the disputed number of sailors fairly.