Granada Cemetery is reputedly the oldest cemetery in Nicaragua and certainly its most opulent and photogenic.
Entering the cemetery from its main entrance on Carretera Granada Nandaime, visitors immediately proceed along a broad, straight access road that is lined on both sides by the cemetery’s largest, most opulent and ornate tombs and mausoleums, final resting place of Granada’s wealthiest and most important citizens.
Granada Cemetery is also said to be home to six, seven or even nine former Presidents of Nicaragua. Having visited on our own, without a guide, we can’t really say.
At the end of this initial, entrance road is the neoclassical stone Capilla de Animas (Chapel of Spirits), an exact scale model of the chapel of the same name in France. Close by is another scale model, this time of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
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As you move away from the main entrance area, the tombs and mausoleums become smaller and more modest in their decoration (these things are relative) but no less interesting and moving.
Relatively few visitors make it to the cemetery which is located on the town’s south-western edge, either a short taxi ride from the town centre or a longish walk.
One option is to get a taxi there and then walk back, perhaps along Calle Real Xalteva, home to some of Granada’s most important and picturesque churches.
