The Xàbia Municipal Archive has brought to light a previously little-known fact: 176 years ago, on October 21, 1849, a significant expansion of the old cemetery of Sant Joan. On that date, a certain Cristóbal Español sold to Town Hall three fanecadas of land in order to expand the space of the enclosure and enable new niches, according to documents from those years.
The story of San Juan Cemetery
The cemetery, inaugurated in 1817 on the outskirts of the town, complied with the hygienic and urban planning regulations that were beginning to emphasize the importance of distance between burials and urban centers. However, according to the geographer Pascual Madoz, in his 1847 work, he described the site as "small and indecent, because its crumbling walls allow entry to foxes and other filthy animals, which eat the limbs of unburied corpses: its location so close to the town is detrimental to public health."
This testimony reflects the deterioration of the site barely three decades after its inauguration and the urgent need to expand and reinforce it. Furthermore, the population growth of Xàbia in the 19th century and the cholera epidemics that affected the Marina Alta region during that century exacerbated the pressure on the burial grounds.
Therefore, the purchase of the three plots of land by the City Council was a direct response to a need for expansion of the burial space and to the health concerns of the time.
Extension works
The archaeological studies carried out in the area —especially in the Hermitage of Sant Joan, who served as funeral chapelThey show that after 1849 the first groups of niches were built on the west wall of the enclosure. Likewise, the remains found demonstrate that the vast majority of previous burials—between 1817 and 1849—were made directly in the ground, and only with this expansion did niches begin to be built to accommodate a growing population.
Despite the expansion in 1849, the cemetery continued to be criticized for its proximity to the town center and its poor condition. Finally, in the 1980s (1989), the construction of a new cemetery on Camí del Cementeri was decided upon. Thus, the old cemetery was closed as an active burial facility.
Findings from the excavations in 2010
During the archaeological excavations carried out in 2010, some 30 graves were located dating between 1817 and 1849, many of them inhumations in the ground without a coffin, which confirms the funerary practices prior to the expansion.
The orientation of the tombs (east-west) and the reuse of some spaces show an intensive use of the land before the expansion.
During the same investigation, fragments of ceramic funerary slabs or 'plafones', decorated with religious motifs, were found and subsequently restored by the Museu de Xàbia in 2018. These elements provide valuable information about funerary aesthetics and popular beliefs of the 19th century.
Local historians also point out that the 1849 expansion allowed for the first time the construction of family niches, a substantial change from the previous system of common burials.
Nowadays
Today, the old site is preserved as a space of collective memory, as a silent witness to the urban and health evolution of Xàbia, and constitutes a relevant historical heritage to understand how people died and were buried in the 19th century.
Bibliography
- Arxiu Municipal Xàbia
- MARQ – Provincial Archaeological Museum of Alicante
- Friends of the Museum of Xàbia
Something in the sales contract caught my attention. It mentions the conversion of Reales de vellón (the currency used at that time) to pesetas (Ptas.), even though the peseta wasn't incorporated into the Spanish monetary system until 1868, almost twenty years later…?