Every cruise passenger who climbs to El Morro sees it. Off the seaward edge of the great lawn, below the wall, a walled rectangle of white marble tombs and a small chapel with a pink dome sits right against the Atlantic. Most people photograph it from above and move on. Very few go down, which is a shame, because it is a ten-minute detour and one of the most striking places in the city.
What it is
The Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis cemetery was laid out in the 1860s, during the last decades of Spanish rule, on the narrow shelf of land between the city wall and the ocean. It was placed outside the walls on purpose: 19th-century thinking held that the dead should be kept apart from the living, and the sea breeze would carry any ill air away. The result is a cemetery with a view that nobody living in the old city can match.
The chapel at the center, with its round pink dome, is dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, a 16th-century Italian Carmelite nun. Around it the tombs are packed tightly, many of them elaborate marble monuments with angels, columns and family names that run through Puerto Rican history.
Who is buried here
The cemetery is the resting place of a remarkable number of the island’s political and cultural figures. Among them are Pedro Albizu Campos, the leader of the Puerto Rican nationalist movement in the 20th century; José de Diego, the poet and politician often called the father of the independence movement; and Rafael Hernández, the composer of some of the most beloved songs in the Puerto Rican repertoire. Walking the rows is a short course in who mattered to Puerto Rico over the last 150 years.
How to get in
This is the part most visitors get wrong. The cemetery sits next to La Perla, but the entrance is not through the neighborhood. From the El Morro side, follow the paved road that curves down from the fort’s entrance lawn toward the water. It passes through a short tunnel in the wall and comes out at the cemetery gate. The road is steep but paved, about 500 feet from the top of the lawn to the gate.
The cemetery is a working municipal cemetery, not a park, so treat it as one: quiet voices, no climbing on tombs, and step aside for any funeral in progress. Opening days and times are set by the city and can change, so if it matters to your plan, confirm on the day. When the gate is closed, the view from the wall above is still worth the walk.
Pairing it with the rest of the day
The cemetery is best combined with El Morro, since you are already there, and with a look over the wall at La Perla next door. Our El Morro vs San Cristóbal guide helps you decide how much time to give the fort, and the free things to do in Old San Juan list covers the rest of the walk back to the ship.
