Cementerio Inglés de Linares

The English cemetery in Linares was the second protestant cemetery of Andalusia. Here people of different nationalities were buried: British, German, French, Swiss and Spaniards who promoted the industrialisation and modernisation of the city.

Its origins date back to the mass arrival of British to the city of Linares, with the unknown and modern Cornish technology, which increased productivity and profitability in the extraction of minerals from its mines. This sparked an unprecedented migratory phenomenon in those times. In 1855, James George Remfry died who, in not professing the Catholic religion, could not be buried in the municipal cemetery. His friends and family decided to bury him next to the wall of the new cemetery built that year.

The British economic influence was obvious, but also brought with it traditions, culture, religion, etc. that changed the society of that era and, some of which, continue to the present day. A remaining symbol is the emblematic English Cemetery. A narrow, steep staircase leads to the stone entrance, protected by an austere gate, behind which lies a lush garden that delimits its rows in which the austerity of the tombs stands out.

The English Cemetery of Linares is one of the three burial remains of the British presence in Andalusia, in addition to the English Cemetery of Málaga and the English Cemetery of Minas de Río Tinto in Huelva. Today it is a private cemetery managed by the descendants of the Linarenses that embraced Protestantism and which claimed an honourable place for their eternal rest. The English cemetery of Linares is part of the European Network of Emblematic Cemeteries (ASCE).