Digging into Colombia's history at Bogota's oldest cemetery
by Adriaan Alsema August 19, 2019
Bogota‘s central cemetery is the oldest in Colombia’s capital and was the first to allow people to bury their dead outside a church.
Until the late 18th century, the custom is all Spain’s colonies was to bury loved ones’ remains inside the church. King Carlos III (1759-1788) ordered to change this tradition in 1787, but this order was largely ignored after his death a year later.
The archbishop of Bogota constructed a cemetery, “La Pepita,” in 1793, but this was boycotted by the colonial ruling class, which refused to be buried alongside ordinary citizens.
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Following the so-called “Bogotazo” in 1948, the city’s authorities were forced to add a mass grave to the cemetery to bury the hundreds of people who were killed in the extremely violent uprising that followed the murder of Jorge Eliecer Gaitan.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/digging-into-colombias-history-at-bogotas-oldest-cemetery/
