British Cemetery in Madrid, Protestant cemetery in Carabanchel, Madrid, Spain
The British Cemetery in Madrid occupies a walled plot on Calle del Comandante Fontanes in Carabanchel, entered through a pointed-arch gateway with black double doors beneath a white sign reading "BRITISH CEMETERY". The rust-red rendered wall has a stepped, crenellated top and a white sculpted figure above the entrance; a blind pointed arch outlined in white sits to the right. About 1,000 graves lie within, including a neo-Egyptian mausoleum of the Bauer banking family with Hebrew inscriptions.
Founded in 1854, the cemetery served as burial grounds for non-Catholic residents when Spanish cemeteries accepted only Catholics. It quickly became the resting place for the growing community of foreigners who arrived in Madrid during the 1800s.
The cemetery reveals Madrid's multicultural past with graves of people from over 40 nationalities who made their lives in the city. The names and inscriptions on the stones reflect the diverse communities of Europeans and others who lived here.
The cemetery is open only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 10:30 to 13:00. The entrance is at Calle del Comandante Fontanes 7, and the grounds are bounded by the streets of Inglaterra and Irlanda. Many headstones are broken and some sculptures are headless, so watch your step along the paths.
The cemetery holds the graves of three British Army personnel from World War I and one Royal Air Force officer from World War II, among the Commonwealth war graves. Also buried here is Alice Bache Gould, a historian of Christopher Columbus descended from US President John Quincy Adams.
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