The proximity to the past All Saints festival prompts us to think about some features of the architecture in funerary monuments and necropolises. In towns in central Vinalopó, cruciform tombs with references to Christian culture compete in numbers with obelisks with pagan connotations. Alcoy cemetery shows the wealth of the urban bourgeoisie, the protagonists of the industrial revolution. The area and its numerous pantheons, which offer a magnificent panorama of the formal solutions of historicism and modernism, whose artistic significance is indisputable, attract great attention. Many are from the Carbonell Antolín family; With sculptures by Hernán Monllor, Moltó Valor, Ridaura and Agustín Gisbert Vidal. Likewise, the San Fabián gallery offers an Enlightenment influence with references to the 17th century; where the gloom of the interior prevails.
The funerary pantheon of the Guijarro family in Alicante is located on a low, gently sloping hill near the city center of Villafranqueza. It is an academic solution of isolated construction with a circular plan with two overlapping levels. The one below is the burial chamber and there is no more light than that coming from the access opening. Above is the chapel with three altar-type altars. The space gains a vertical development with the presence of the half orange dome sitting on the drum. The closed area surrounded by high walls was isolated from the outside and peace was achieved. In 1844, many of the rebels in the liberal declaration of Pantaleón Boné were shot in front of these walls. We had the pleasure of continuing the physical restoration of the abandoned and looted building together with M. Beviá in the 1990s.
The Pantaleón Boné and the obelisk erected in memory of those shot on the boardwalk were the work of Vicente Bañuls. The monument, located in front of Puerta del Mar, was dismantled at the end of the civil war in 1939. Today the monument remains in the municipal cemetery in memory of the historical event. It is a limestone cube eighty centimeters wide, raised on four supporting points. Surrounded by cypress trees on both sides, the pottery that now grows scattered around it almost hides it from the possible gaze of visitors to the necropolis.
In 1855, in the neighborhood of San Antón, for two years, a funerary monument was built, as Elías Tormo called it, originally considered a cenotaph, in honor of the Governor of the province who died during the cholera epidemic. It is a long obelisk with different sculptural motifs arranged on a wide base. It is located in the middle of a fenced garden that emphasizes seclusion.
The municipal necropolis in Alicante dates back to the flu epidemic of 1918. Its initial plan is a grid housing the pantheons of the religious cemetery in San Blas. These are small chapels built in historicist, Byzantine, Romanesque or neo-Gothic styles, commissioned by the local bourgeoisie. There are surnames of well-known families as well as countless unnamed families. These are undoubtedly pieces of artistic interest, as local sculptors’ workshops leave the best of their art and experience in capturing the symbolism these works entail.
The chapel on the top floor of the site was designed by architect Félix de Azúa, who was the municipal architect of Alicante. Originally to collect the bodies of people who were on the winning side during the civil war. Black marble coating was considered inside, but it was not done this way later.
A pantheon, now anonymous because there is no tombstone, solves the façade of its asymmetrical composition with very mysterious and interesting symbology. It is carved from Bateig stone with a clear tone with little but effective emphasis. Its vertical pyramidal development represents a rock as an allegory of Golgotha, clearly visible in the upper third. The lower part makes up two-thirds of the total and offers more variety of formatting and texture. Plant species such as ivy, a symbol of femininity and vegetative power, and flowers, especially the rose, the chalice that collected the blood of Jesus in Christian iconography, are superimposed on the jagged rocky surface. Our hero is a life-size half-relief female figure wearing a tight-waist tunic. His feet and arms were left bare and his hands were clasped. The head leaning on the right arm, the nape of the neck and the long mane of hair extending along the left shoulder allow us to imagine a serene face with beautiful lines. The nose resembles faces from ancient Greek times. Lips and eyes are closed. The dress, fluttering in the wind, fits perfectly on the naked body, sitting on the legs and knees. This movement effect in the clothes and the curvy plant shapes add dynamism to the formal solution inspired by modernism. Especially the community and the female figure evoke peace and tranquility. Also melancholy and sadness.