"Just a few hundred metres away from the bustling noise of Calle General Ricardos, in the Carabanchel district of Madrid, is a 170 year old brick wall, behind which, lies the British Cemetery, with the “peace and quiet of an English country churchyard, surrounded by trees; the silence now and again broken by the call of a bird or the rustle of wings”.
The acre plot of land that is the cemetery was purchased by the British Government in 1853, and opened a year later when the first burials took place. It is now the final resting place of around a 1,000 souls, whose gravestones are engraved in the languages of many lands – not just from the United Kingdom.
In fact negotiations had been going on – and off – for over a hundred years before the promulgation of a Royal Decree in 1830 authorizing representatives of the British community in Spain to buy land in which British non-Catholics could be given a Christian burial. The small British community in Madrid at that time were mostly diplomats, soldiers, merchants and artists".
Los invitamos a continuar disfrutando de este artículo que nos comparte nuestro amigo y colega David John Butler, publicado en el Madrid Metropolitan, a través del siguiente link:
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