Welcome to the first entry in the Cemetery Series! Things will be slightly different in this series–for one thing, I will be including cemeteries that I have visited not-super-recently, which I don’t do for museums because exhibits change, etc. Cemeteries tend to be a bit more consistent.
I did visit this one, recently, however: El Cementerio La Cumbrecita. La Cumbrecita is a small pedestrian village in Cordoba, Argentina, that relies entirely on tourism. It was founded in 1934 by German immigrants who missed the scenery of the old country. It was rocky, treeless hillscape at first, and there were no roads, but slowly it was transformed into an Alpine-style town surrounded by the pine and spruce trees they planted. The town went from German-immigrant-summer-home village to a tourist spot, where visitors can now have the slightly dissonant experience of a European village widely populated by green parakeets.
The cemetery is not very easy to get to.
While I found it on Google Maps quickly enough, it is at the top of hill, necessitating a long, occasionally steep walk. As I discovered later, the cemetery path off the main road is no longer marked. That’s it on the right there. I continued left.
Eventually, I ran out of road. But it was a very long walk, and I wasn’t in the mood to give up. Looking around, I saw a plank. Must be a reason for it, right?
I walked carefully across it. It was readily apparent that there was no path on the other side of the plank, so I hugged the hillside on the right for a couple minutes and then ran out of place to walk. But, there was a gate, beyond a lame-ass fence up the incline on the right.
Seemed like an unorthodox way to get into a cemetery, but I didn’t see a more legit looking entrance, so I climbed up the hillside and wiggled under the fence, as you do. Maybe it was the back gate?
It was in fact the front, and only, gate.
The cemetery yard is a very small place, laid out on the hillside. I have to think that most of the graves are for ashes (or are only memorial plaques), because they’re rather teeny. It’s a peaceful, overgrown spot, full of wildflowers and buzzing insects.
It only takes a few minutes to walk though the whole place, which you might or might not find gratifying after the long hike up, depending on how into quiet, hidden graveyards you are. I discovered on the way out that there was a path that did not require wiggling under a fence that led to the main road. So that was nice.
You can find more information on La Cumbrecita here; it’s a lovely little place to relax and hike and dip your feet in the river.
The Exhibitist 