English Cemetery

In front of you is the first Protestant cemetery in Spain. To understand why it's so remarkable, you need to know what happened before it existed.

1Burials in the sand

In the early 19th century more and more British merchants were living in Málaga, drawn by the trade in wine and raisins. But anyone who wasn't Catholic could not be buried in consecrated ground: not in churches, not in convents, not in parish cemeteries. The solution was grim: they were buried on the beach, at night. Waves and dogs sometimes left the remains exposed.

2Consul Mark's determination

William Mark, British consul from 1824, set out to put an end to this. After overcoming resistance from the Health Board, he obtained from the governor a plot of municipal land beside the Vélez road, overlooking the sea. A Royal Order from Ferdinand VII in 1830 gave permission, and the cemetery came into use around 1831. His own tomb, with a red marble column and the motto "Vincit omnia veritas", lies inside.

One of the first burials was that of Robert Boyd, a young Irishman who had funded General Torrijos's expedition and was shot alongside him in December 1831. The writer Gerald Brenan and the poet Jorge Guillén also rest here.

Hans Christian Andersen visited it during his travels in Spain and described it admiringly in the book he published in 1863.

3What to look for

• The marble lions on the gateposts.
• The keeper's lodge, Gothic Revival, dated 1856.
• The overflowing greenery spilling over the wall, a terraced botanical garden.