The English Cemetery - great beginning of the year
We finish the month of January with a lot of news and our little cemetery is more alive than ever.
The first is that you may remember that a few months ago we entered the "Cemeteries of Spain Competition" organised by Funespaña and the magazine Adios Cultural. Well, we won in the category of Best Public Activity with Las Noches del Inglés. Can you believe it? A small 19th century cemetery with hardly any resources until very recently receiving a national award. We pinch ourselves and can't believe it.
This recognition is one of the most important awards in the funeral sector in which the winners are chosen by a jury made up of professionals in the sector as well as specialists in art, history and the environment. So we are very happy about this recognition.
The second piece of news is also hard to assimilate: last week we were at Fitur presenting the results of Las Noches del Inglés with the Junta de Andalucía and Turismo Andaluz. It was very exciting because we were able to talk about the results and how we have gone from having approximately 8,000 visits per year to over 45,000 visits in 2023. This shows that culture is always a driving force for change.
There was also space at Fitur to report on the progress of the rehabilitation we are carrying out on the most deteriorated tombs. We are currently working on one of our symbols: the sculpture of the Angel that accompanies the grave of Mary Anne Heaton who was affectionately known as Annie.
Annie was married in St George's Chapel in the Cemetery itself to Edwin Plews, one of the founders of Sevilla Football Club. She died giving birth to her fourth child and now rests forever just a few metres from where she was so happy that day she said 'yes' to the footballer. It is looking beautiful.
Heartfelt thanks to all of you who support us by coming to our events, visits, markets... All of this is for you.
Finally we remind you that the English Cemetery is managed by the English Cemetery Foundation of Malaga, a non-profit foundation that works to maintain and conserve this historic place.
