San Miguel Historical Cemetery
MONUMENTO A LAS COFRADÍAS
Monument to Confraternities
Confraternities as a manifestation of popular religious devotion are not frequently linked to a cemetery. San Miguel Cemetery is no(?) exception. Brotherhoods, besides the organisation of processional floats, used to bury their brothers in the crypts of the chapels of their own churches. Nevertheless, Charles III’s Royal Order of 1787 banning the burials inside churches for health reasons, jeopardised one of their pivotal functions.
Burials in common graves at San Miguel Cemetery on its present location started in 1804, due to a yellow fever epidemic. It was appointed Malaga city General Cemetery in 1805, although by that time it lacked safeguarding walls. Confraternities took the initiative in the promotion and dignification of the cemetery, given the fact that since 1821 the City Health Committee began to sell land to the confraternities that allowed them to build funerary recesses for their brothers. An enclosure of four rows of funerary recesses of Confraternities such as Viñeros, Luz y Vela, Llagas y Columnas, Nazareno del Paso, Aurora y Espíritu Santo, Concepción Dolorosa, and others, fenced the area of present Yard 1, turning it into a safe place.
Subsequently, many confraternities made a second contribution, and began to build monumental mausoleums, imitating the wealthy classes. By 1897, San Miguel Cemetery housed 17 mausoleums and 487 funerary recesses, property of the Confraternities.
This contribution, vital for the monumental layout of the cemetery and for the normalisation of burials in cemeteries, has been acknowledged with this monument, erected in 2022. The monument is made up of a supporting wall of a sculptural work cast in bronze. A cornice, ended in a volute with fallen leaves, houses a card with a scene in golden bas-relief depicting a coffin entering the chapel to receive the Order of Christian Funerals prior to the burial. It is flanked by two powerful effigies: to the left a penitent is holding a lancet, processional insignia of some confraternities symbolising the cleaning of the blood shed by Jesus Christ. On the opposite side, an angel plays the trumpet to glory, shaping the aim of the believer’s spiritual life, who dies awaiting the resurrection.
This sculptural work -portraying a harmonious composition with a wealth of volume and various levels of relief- was designed and sculpted by Juan Vega, a sculptor born in Malaga who used a baroque language, recognisable in the dynamism of the figures and the prolific pleats of the robes. This sculptural ensemble was blessed on the Federation of Holy Week’s Confraternities 100th anniversary.
Texts: Francisco J. Rodriguez Marin · English Translation: Francisco Pineda Castillo and Sonny Arthur Tuke · English Narration: Sonny Arthur Tuke · Production: Photo Video Digital