With more than 34,000 tombs, the Morelia municipal pantheon has 18 tombs considered works of art, among which are figures of angels and a Virgin of the Rosary, which is a work by the Italian artist Alfonso Ponzanell.
Authorities inside the pantheon reported that a tour will be carried out to make a precise inventory of all the works of this sculptor, which is estimated to have been carried out in the 1930s, and they will be given the necessary maintenance.
Also noteworthy is the so-called roundabout of illustrious men, where lie the remains of characters such as former governors, Bruno Patiño, Rafael Carrillo, Justo Mendoza and Epitacio Huerta, the poet Manuel Narvarte; the writer and journalist, Mariano de Jesús Torres, including Melchor Ocampo.
It was on July 15, 1895 when the Municipal Pantheon of Morelia was officially inaugurated. In those days it was the outer zone of the southwest of the city, but now it is a few minutes from the Historic Center of the city, between the Gustavo Díaz Ordaz and Morelos.
Its extension is close to 16 hectares and, in it, remains have been kept since 1889, when the mortuary space was located by the facilities of the old medical tower of the Mexican Institute of Social Security.
Undoubtedly, one of the most emblematic sculptures of the Municipal Pantheon is the so-called Caged Angel, which, according to legend, came out of the tomb at night and the local visitors watched it at the secondary entrance to the cemetery; which is why the owners of the tomb decided to insert a metal structure and thus avoid their night outings.
Another of the monuments is that of a clenched hand, of the girl Tarcila García Sorrulla; which she died in the city of Morelia on March 10, 1938, a victim of fascist barbarism in the Spanish war that distanced her from her parents and her homeland. She lived in Mexico during the custody of the government of General Lázaro Cárdenas.
General Lázaro Cárdenas.
There are also children’s monuments, such as that of Berta, a little girl who, according to what was narrated by the archive manager, died in 1936 from a shot her brother fired at her. This tomb is made of marble and is one of the most deteriorated. , since it does not receive any maintenance.
Although there are no official figures on the matter, it is estimated that of the more than 34,000 graves on land, 5,000 do not receive the appropriate care to guarantee their conservation in optimal conditions.
Annual demand for a thousand spaces
Based on its architectural, cultural, and historical characteristics, the Morelia Public Services Secretariat, in coordination with the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), announced to El Sol de Morelia the feasibility of creating an area within the Municipal Pantheon that would be considered Heritage of the Michoacan capital.
José Luis Gil Vázquez, head of the agency, explained that he is currently working on a project where the analysis of the 34,000 tombs is being analyzed to select those that meet the requirements and thus can be considered within it.
“We are doing the analysis of all the tombs that require or should be preserved and we will look for them to be removed from those places, people will be able to make use of the spaces as long as they respect the same architecture of that tomb, that is the part that we are analyzing. he explained.
The municipal official explained that the Camposanto of the Michoacán capital maintains an annual demand for a thousand spaces, so to date, there are still 700, a figure with which he said, the needs of Morelia are guaranteed, in addition to the fact that they are still recovering spaces constantly, especially drawers.
“We don’t have spaces on land, most were perpetuities, which already have a responsible person, we also have the El Vergel pantheon, which is the annex, in which if we have spaces on land, Morelia is satisfied in terms of offering the needs of the people who request a burial service”, he specified.
He stressed that if said project were to materialize, it would seek to lower a federal resource with which the costs of care and maintenance of the tombs would be sustained, because the INAH has shown interest in conserving those that are suitable.
It is noteworthy that in the municipality of Morelia, both in the rural and urban areas, there are 42 pantheons operating, while the Municipal one is the only one that has covered all the guidelines established by the norm.
It is also the oldest, with 127 years of life in the place it currently occupies, although before it was operating in the old neighborhood of San Juan, very close to the market of the same name.
