The British Cemetery: Henry Fielding Among the Cypresses
Why is it significant?
Ring at the gate in the high wall and step into a different silence. Dark cypresses tower over mossy headstones, paths of gravel wander between them, and most of the inscriptions are in English... names of merchants, sailors, doctors and governesses who came to Lisbon and never left.
Key Facts
| Place | The British Cemetery: Henry Fielding Among the Cypresses |
|---|---|
| Address | Rua de São Jorge 6, 1200 Lisboa, Portugal |
| Geo Coordinates | 38.71640, -9.16040 |
| Part of Walk | Lisbon's Garden Hills: Aqueduct Water, Giant Trees & the Estrela Basilica |
| Generated | Generated |
Ring at the gate in the high wall and step into a different silence. Dark cypresses tower over mossy headstones, paths of gravel wander between them, and most of the inscriptions are in English... names of merchants, sailors, doctors and governesses who came to Lisbon and never left.
For a long time Protestants had nowhere to be buried in Catholic Portugal. A treaty signed in 1654 between Oliver Cromwell's England and King João IV of Portugal gave English merchants the right to their own burial ground, but it took decades before this plot was in use, in the early eighteenth century. The cypresses became so famous that Lisboetas simply called the place Os Ciprestes, the cypresses.
Find the large stone tomb near the centre. It belongs to Henry Fielding, the author of Tom Jones, one of the founding novels of English literature. Desperately ill, he sailed to Lisbon in 1754 hoping the warm climate would save him. He arrived in August and died in October of that same year, at forty-seven. His diary of the trip, The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, was published after his death, grumbling, funny and very human to the end.
Look at the dates on the stones around you and you will see Lisbon's history from the outside: port-wine families, men who came for the cork and the trade with Brazil, young people carried off by yellow fever and cholera, soldiers of the Peninsular War against Napoleon. Just a year after Fielding was buried, the 1755 earthquake would kill tens of thousands across the city below.
In the middle of the cemetery stands St George's Church, still used by Lisbon's Anglican community. Birds are the loudest thing here. When you leave, walk west into Campo de Ourique, the neighbourhood of straight streets on the plateau above, to a leafy square where the whole district gathers.