Cementiri del Poblenou: The Kiss of Death
Why is it significant?
Pass through the neoclassical gateway and you enter a silent city: long streets lined with walls of niches, five and six storeys high, each with its name, its date, its faded photograph or plastic flowers. The noise of the avenue disappears within a few steps.
Key Facts
| Place | Cementiri del Poblenou: The Kiss of Death |
|---|---|
| Address | Avinguda d'Icària s/n, 08005 Barcelona, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.39430, 2.20100 |
| Part of Walk | From the 1888 Expo to the Catalan Manchester: Ciutadella Park & Poblenou, Barcelona |
| Generated | Generated |
Pass through the neoclassical gateway and you enter a silent city: long streets lined with walls of niches, five and six storeys high, each with its name, its date, its faded photograph or plastic flowers. The noise of the avenue disappears within a few steps.
This is the Cementiri del Poblenou, the oldest cemetery in Barcelona. It was opened in 1775 by Bishop Josep Climent, outside the city walls, at a time when the dead were still buried around parish churches in the crowded old town, and doctors worried about epidemics. Napoleon's troops destroyed it in 1813, and it was rebuilt a few years later by the Italian architect Antonio Ginesi in the sober, geometric style you see.
Now go looking, among the pantheons of the wealthy industrial families, for the most famous tomb here. A handsome young man kneels, eyes closed, his body going limp, while a winged skeleton bends over and kisses him on the forehead. It is called El Petó de la Mort, the Kiss of Death, made in 1930 for the grave of a young man from a local family, and usually attributed to the sculptor Jaume Barba. Death here is not a reaper with a scythe, but something tender, almost seductive... and that is precisely what makes it so unsettling.
Not far away is a much humbler grave, always covered in notes and flowers. It belongs to Francesc Canals Ambrós, a young shop assistant who died in 1899, in his early twenties, and was said to have the gift of healing and prophecy. People still call him the Santet, the little saint of Poblenou, and they still leave him their requests, although the Church has never recognised him.
The cemetery tells the story of the neighbourhood, from mill owners in marble chapels to workers in rented niches. Leave by the gate and walk inland, crossing the streets of the old village, until you reach the long tree-lined promenade at its heart, the Rambla del Poblenou.