San Miguel Historical Cemetery
AMALIA HEREDIA LIVERMOORE
Amalia Heredia Livermore was the tenth daughter of the twelve that the entrepreneur Manuel Agustín Heredia and his wife Isabel Livermore had. In 1850, she married Jorge Enrique Loring Oyarzábal, a businessman of American descent, with whom she would go on to have nine children. It was on their long honeymoon trip around Europe where she discovered her passion for gardening and archaeology.
In 1851, the legal bronze tablets, Lex Flavia Malacitana and Salpensana, were discovered in Málaga. They acquired them with the intention of preserving them which then became the beginning of what was a valuable archaeological collection. In 1857, the couple purchased a country house named La Concepción, that they then converted into a botanical garden with subtropical species coming from faraway countries. Two years later, they had a classic template built to host what was then known as Loring Museum, which was open to the public. Its dimensions were adapted to the Roman mosaic ‘The Labours of Hercules’, which was installed as pavement. La Concepción became a place of celebration for political gatherings and somewhere illustrated guests would frequent, like Cánovas del Castillo or empress Sissí. In their large gardens, they would organise parties and picnics.
She was an intelligent lady with a strong character, cult, active, an art collector and took an interest in politics; qualities that were not so common in women during that time.
Her sensitivity regarding cultural heritage became unquestionable during her visit to Granada when a fire broke out in the Hall of the Boat in the Alhambra Palace, one that she and her husband helped put out with their own hands. Amalia Heredia Livermore was one of the founders of the Royal Spanish Society of Natural History. For her collaboration during the Cholera pandemic that affected the whole city, she was named Marquese of Casa Loring. She collaborated with the San Julián hospital during the African war and the starting-up process of the Hospital Civil, warranting the award of the Band of the Royal Order of Noble Ladies of Queen María Luisa. She also promoted the founding of La Asunción school to prevent middle and upper class young ladies from having to go abroad.
The last years of her life, however, were tarnished with misfortune. Everything started with the assassination of her son Manuel, and then both her husband and one of their daughters falling ill. Towards the end, she suffered from financial hardship, which led her to get rid of her mansion on Calle Alcalá in Madrid, sell her bronze Roman tablets to the State and mortgage La Concepción.
In the final years of her life, she lived in a building of her property in Hoyo de Esparteros. She became a widow in 1900 and then died in 1902 at 72 years-of-age from kidney cirrhosis. She is buried in the outer garden of the Heredia family mausoleum next to her husband.
Texts: Francisco J. Rodriguez Marin · English Translation: Francisco Pineda Castillo and Sonny Arthur Tuke · English Narration: Sonny Arthur Tuke · Production: Photo Video Digital