I do like a good cemetery and the Cementario Central, with its beautiful Art Deco and Art Noveau statues, is a particularly nice one.
Generally speaking Montevideo is like a smaller version of Buenos Aires and this applies to the cemetery as well which is very similar in style to the famous Cemeterio de la Recoleta. Please see my Recoleta post for pictures from there.
Many famous people in Uruguayan history are buried here, several of whom were Masons, Alchemists and Templars going on the heavy use of symbology on their gravestones.
‘Necroturismo’ is allowed but security asked me to first get a ‘permiso’ to take photos from the cemetery office, which you’ll find over on the far right hand wall as you enter. The guy there just grunted which I took to mean ‘Of course, why are you asking me?’ so I guess the security guard was just covering her back. She came to check on me later though but I’m not sure she wasn’t trying to chat me up! I do like a woman with a gun…
The opening hours are between 12 and 4 and they chucked me out on the dot. You’ll need a couple of hours to get round it all. Please click on the photos to go to a full-screen slide show.
