Many visitors ask us why there is a Protestant cemetery in the city. What are the reasons for its foundation? Why is it located on the Almería road? What is your relationship with the city? We answer all these questions and many more in the history section of our website.

And it is that until the creation of this cemetery in 1831, the death of a Protestant in Spain was a very serious problem since there was no legal framework for such eventuality. Since the cemeteries were sanctified to the catholic faith, in Spain the corpses of all those who did not profess this religion could not be buried. In Malaga, in particular, to perform non-Catholic burials, local authorities only allowed the corpses to be carried to the beach at night by torchlight to be buried standing in the sand leaving them at the mercy of waves and dogs.

Cuando William Mark, que había sido testigo de estos entierros, fue nombrado cónsul británico en 1824 puso toda su dedicación en buscar un terreno que sirviese de cementerio para que los miembros de su comunidad pudieran recibir un enterramiento digno. Finalmente en 1829 las autoridades malagueñas le cedieron un terreno despoblado en las afueras de la ciudad cerca de la carretera de Almería y el cementerio inglés se hizo realidad, constituyéndose así como el Cementerio protestante más antiguo de la España peninsular. Según el registro de enterramientos la primera persona que fue inhumada en el nuevo cementerio fue un tal Mr George Stephens, propietario del bergantín “Cicero”, que se ahogó accidentalmente en el puerto de Málaga en Enero de 1831. Posteriormente ese mismo año se levantó un muro y la primera persona en ser enterrada intramuros fue Robert Boyd, fusilado en Málaga por su participación en la insurrección fracasada de los liberales en diciembre de 1831 junto con el general Torrijos.

Along with him, in this necropolis, there are buried many characters who have contributed to the city of Malaga is configured as we know it today. Not in vain, three of the five mottos of the shield of the city are related to these characters. There we have the hospital donated by the heiresses of Joseph William Noble, all the sailors drowned in the sinking of the frigate Gneissenau, in whose sinking the malagueños won the title of VERY HOSPITAL or the already named Robert Boyd, who gave his life together José María Torrijos getting Malaga was known as THE FIRST IN THE DANGER OF FREEDOM. Characters such as the writers Jorge Guillén, Gerald Brenan, the Finnish author Aarne Haapakoski or Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson also found their final rest in this cemetery.

For more than 175 years the cemetery was administered by the successive British consuls with a small contribution from the government of the islands that was withdrawn in 1903, which made that little by little, the maintenance of the cemetery and its gardens was declining until reaching a state of practical abandonment at the end of the 20th century.

Due to the legal vacuum in which the necropolis was located, the British consul Bruce McIntyre decided that the best solution was to transfer the land to a foundation that could find funding to value the monument. In 2006, the ownership of the cemetery was transferred to the Fundación Cementerio Inglés de Málaga, a non-profit organization, founded to preserve, maintain and manage the cemetery as part of the city's historical legacy.

The English Cemetery of Malaga was named an Asset of Cultural Interest by the Junta de Andalucía in 2012 and is registered in the association of significant cemeteries in Europe (ASCE) thanks to its great artistic, historical, literary and botanical value.

Currently the cemetery is maintained thanks to the income obtained from the sale of souvenirs and books related to the cemetery, the cultural management of the monument, as well as the legacies and donations received by the foundation. Voluntary contributions are essential for the maintenance of the site, so the Foundation is always open to receive donations with which to continue paying the basic expenses of this corner of the city of Malaga.