52 Cementerio Municipal

Although late to respond to the royal regulations enacted at the end of the eighteenth century, the cemetery of La Orotava is testament to the new religious, urban and sanitary developments in La Orotava during the first decades of the nineteenth century. After some attempts to locate it in other areas of the municipality, the Marqués de Acialcázar y Torrehermosa was finally forced to cede some of his land for its construction, so that the cemetery would be located next to the gardens of the convent of San Lorenzo. Although not built according to the original design, its outline was the work of the sculptor Fernando Estévez de Salas.

The most far-reaching reforms were not carried out until the end of the nineteenth century, as construction of the chapel did not begin until 1882. The building reused stone elements from the doorway of the already demolished Poor Clares Convent of San Jose. At that time the most famous residents of the town erected family vaults with sculptural representations.