Asturias
Cemetery of Bulnes, Asturias
Bulnes is a village of 23 inhabitants in the municipality of Cabrales from which there is a view of Pico Urriellu (the mythical Naranjo de Bulnes), which has an altitude of 2,519 meters.
Bulnes is 650 meters above sea level and until a few years ago it could only be reached on foot. In order to fix the isolation in 2001 the Bulnes funicular was opened. It runs through a tunnel of 2,227 meters long and 4.5 wide with a slope of nearly 20%, and leads to the village in seven minutes.
Formerly the cemetery was roofed in order to be able to bury in winter due to the heavy snowfall that troubled the already unpleasant task.
The cemetery of Bulnes is the poorest I’ve ever seen. Some graves are marked with crosses which are only two sticks of wood bound with a wire with the name of the deceased painted on by brush.
Cemetery of Luarca, Valdés
Luarca is the capital of the Council of Valdés. This cemetery, which was built in 1813, is on the promontory known as La Atalaya (The Watchtower), on the edge of the Cantabrian Sea.
The cemetery of Luarca has wonderful modernist mausoleums and splendid views of the sea, the village, the lighthouse and the harbour. As it is on a slope, the tombs are located on terraces.
The Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology in 1959, Severo Ochoa, is buried in this beautiful cemetery.