Cemitério São Miguel

Goiás (Goiás – GO)

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The early settlement of the town of Goiás began with armed groups of Portuguese pioneers who devoted themselves to exploring the uncharted Brazilian land in search of gold and precious stones. As goldmines were discovered, temporary settlements were built to house the mining squatters. This type of settlement was called “arraial,” in Portuguese. Built in the bandeirista (explorer) fashion, their function was to accommodate fixed mining settlers.
Thus Arraial de Sant’Ana came to be. It was founded in 1727 by Bartolomeu Bueno da Silva on the banks of Rio Vermelho – Red River. Later this settlement was renamed Vila Boa. At the time of its foundation, the settlement belonged in the Captaincy of São Paulo. The Captaincy of Goyaz was only created in 1744.
Thus, Bartolomeu Bueno da Silva founded Arraial de Sant-aspas-Ana on the banks of Vermelho River , in 1727. Later this settlement was renamed Vila Boa.

At the time of its foundation, the settlement belonged in the Captaincy of São Paulo. The Captaincy of Goyaz was only created in 1744.
In 1749, the Portuguese crown appointed D. Marcos de Noronha, Count of Arcos, first governor of the Captaincy of Goya.

In this golden period, the city underwent significant expansion with the building of churches, administrative buildings, commercial areas and public fountains. The houses, alongside the street, had a simple and sober look. This urban infrastructure met the social demand of families of the early settlers that are the traditional families in the local society of today. Deceased members of these families are buried in São Miguel Cemetery, founded in 1858.

The town of Goiás conserved religious traditions of the Brazilian colonial society, as for instance the burial custom of burying the dead in churches. According to a report issued by the government of the province of Goiás on the period from 1861 to 1863, this custom prevailed until 1859. In this province, burials in churches are still an ongoing pratice. The decency of cult and public health functions require that such abuse be definitely extinct.

Several laws issued in previous years levied an annual fee on farmers and sharecroppers that was destined for the construction of cemeteries in all parishes in the province. The original law issued on November 15, 1856 was never enforced and its precepts are still the same as in article 49 of the law issued last year on July 31, which obliges farmers to make the same annual contribution. Those who refuse to comply are subject to a 2$000rs fine. To enforce tax collection and subsequent money allocation for the ends to which it is destined, I appointed a commission in each parochial locality; finally, I determined that the local chambers follow the procedures designed by these commissions, following their reports on visits to parishes that have adopted this significant development. I have been receiving official reports that attest to the zeal and solicitude of certain commissions, and their endeavor to correspond to the confidence they enjoy on the part of the administration. I am convinced that in many parishes tax revenue will surpass cemetery budget estimates. (CERQUEIRA, 1997).

The São Miguel Cemetery was solemnly inaugurated on August 13, 1858 with the presence of officials and a large number of persons in attendance. Its administration was entrusted to the São Pedro d’Alcantara Mercy Hospital, run by the Church, as described in a governmental report titled Relatório Governos da Província de Goyaz de 1856-1859:

Upon the conclusion of the building of this capital city’s public cemetery and its delivery by the respective contractor last year on August 18, I appointed a commission integrated by LTC Antônio José de Castro, Ernesto Vallée, João Prode, Inácio Xavier da Silva, Joaquim Manuel das Chagas Artiaga and Antônio Gonsalves Dias, to undertake the due inspection of the building site and check it for solidity and perfection, and at the same time to appraise it for the purposes described in paragraph 7, article 5, of law n. 11 issued November 9, 1857. The commission identified a few flaws in the construction that are not serious enough to justify an eventual rejection of the building, particularly because these flaws do not jeopardize its permanence in time, and also because they result from a lack of skilled labor in this city. Therefore, I decided to accept the building as it was and, in abidance by the commission-aspas-s advice, I authorized the payment to the contractor, himself an honorable member of this assembly. The amount of 1:953$528 réis corresponded to the amount due as provided for in the agreement, plus 15 percent of the total expenditures incurred. (…) Internments in churches of this capital city will be prohibited as of February 3. I am pleased to announce that this prohibition has not met any opposition on the part of the local population, which thereby gave one more proof of common sense and docility (CERQUEIRA, 1997).

Without a doubt, local farmers appreciated the opening of São Miguel Cemetery . Little by little, the local folk became convinced of its significance as well as of the province-aspas-s new role in the treatment of death, given that the first death to be officially recorded at a notary public only took place in 1889, according to memorialist and researcher Jairo Nascimento Costa (2003). The administration of São Miguel Cemetery was transferred to the city hall in 1925, when it was secularized just as most cemeteries in Brazil.

Given its status as administrative center during the colonial period, the city of Goiás attracted a large number of families from the mining town of Meia Ponte, whose descendants were and continue to be extremely active in the cultural and social life of the region. Jarbas Jayme is a genealogist who has undertaken the survey of Goiás families whose members stood out in the field of politics, as for example the families Fleury, Caiado, and Curado; in the field of arts, such as the Veiga family of sculptor José Joaquim da Veiga Valle (1806-1874); and in the field of literature, as for example the Bulhões family. The majority of ancestors who lived in Goiás are buried in São Miguel Cemetery.
Other illustrious personalities were also buried at this cemetery, including the nationally renowned poet Cora Coralina, whose real name was Ana Lins dos Guimarães Peixoto (1889-1985); appellate judge and poet Luís Ramos de Oliveira Couto (1884-1948); Antônio Félix de Bulhões Jardim (1845-1887), a novelist who struggled for the abolitionist cause and for that was denied a proper funeral by the Catholic Church due to his materialist and evolutionist thoughts and also for being a mason; and Joaquim Bonifácio de Siqueira (1883-1923), who wrote the lyrics for the song “Noites Goianas” [Goiás Nights]. São Miguel Cemetery is also the resting place of anonymous ordinary adults, youths and children who lived in Goiás. Their lifetime contributions shaped the development of the city and their deaths imprinted historical significance on the cemetery. The personality traits of the people buried at São Miguel Cemetery are reflected on grave marker designs of high artistic and symbolical value that pays a tribute to those individuals who contributed to the development of the state of Goiás. The cemetery is therefore a cultural and historical institution that must be conserved in the memory of the society of Goiás.

In 1927, the original graveyard was enhanced with an expansion – the first of a series of eventual additions. At present the cemetery takes up an area of 20,734 square meters that is divided into 40 sections outlined by parallel and perpendicular lanes. As result of the last expansion, in 1994, it now has a northern section with narrow lanes, containing 666 tombs aligned side by side. The building at the cemetery entrance conserves its original façade built with pounded mud and gravel in colonial style, and modern-style windows. The cemetery layout is shaped like an irregular quadrilateral. The main access road leads to the cross and from there to the chapel built with wattle and daub, with a curved back wall.The most popular tomb designs have quadrangular bases.
Sculptures representing Christian beings and figures such as angels and saints, and civic symbols such as busts of successful politicians are placed at the head of the graves.
Another distinctive element in this cemetery are the artistic creations in handcrafted soapstone, wood and clay, or the wrought iron fences and gates with floral designs and finials erected around some of the graves.
There are a few tombs that boast typically regional characteristics, as for example relief designs that local stoneworkers carved on marble. This type of craftsmanship is quite relevant because it utilizes representations of Christian symbols such as the goblet, the Sacred Heart, the cross, the crown of thorns, crowns of flowers, the dove, and the partly drawn curtains. The stone utilized for the tombs is “Sete Lagoas” marble, which occurs in certain regions of the states of Goiás and Minas Gerais. This marble is predominantly light gray with dark veins and rose blotches. The older tombs, which lay in ruins, were built with pounded clay and large adobe bricks, in accordance to the building techniques utilized in the regional churches (VALLADARES, 1972).

At São Miguel Cemetery the vegetation is comprised of palm trees that line both sides of the main access lane as well as the side lanes running parallel to the walls. This vegetation is native of Brazil, making the place unique. The plot of land that houses the cemetery is located has the Canta Galo Hill and the Church of Santa Barbara to the north, and to the south-west, the Serra Dourada mountain range. To the south, the cemetery overlooks the city and its old houses covered with colonial-style clay roof tiles, offering a beautiful view of this city nestled in a valley.

RESTING CHILD, turn of the 20 th century. A biscuit statue (rarely seen in Brazilian cemeteries) of a weeping child is installed at the head of this grave. The relief design of a child on the tombstone represents Virgilio Fleury, a boy who died in his early childhood and was allowed the grace of “eternal rest.”.

BUST OF THE PATRIARCH, 1960s. The idealized bust also served as a mask of the bourgeois pride and class spirit, because this was only meant for those who stood out in the world of politics, economy, society and culture of the city and the state. The grave of the family of Senator Dr. Antônio Ramos Caiado.

MODERN TOMB, 1930s. The pedestal shaped like an urn topped with a cross presents a subtle game of vertical and oblique planes, well in agreement with the canons of modern architecture. The bust of Major Luiz de Macedo Carvalho, carved in bas-relief, exalts the dignified standing of the deceased.

ETERNAL ABODE. The inclination was to bring church or home representations into secularized cemeteries with the purpose of providing comfort and protection to the deceased. Hence the last abode of Manoel Cassemiro de Oliveira and his wife Lídia Leite de Souza was built as a simple little house protected by Christ´s cross.

FAMILY MAUSOLEUM, 19 th century. The Bulhões family was granted the privilege of burying their dead close to one another. On the two tombs flanking an obelisk, concave cement pedestals provide support for an urn and for the marble statue of a child angel, weeping in sorrow. Between the two pedestals, an obelisk of black granite and rectangular base lends the set a certain air of modernity.

BUST, 1920s. The sculpture representing the head, shoulders and upper chest of Leopoldo Jardim abides by the canons of neoclassic art, with lofty and naturalist features. Besides venerating the memory of a deceased personality, this artistic trend was meant to compete with Roman tombs.

GENUINE DECORATION, turn of the 20 th century. The external walls of this compact construction are decorated with ornamental soapstone borders and reliefs inlaid in the surface mortar. In this tomb, the designs of the dove, the messenger of the Earth, carrying an olive branch in its beak and the Latin cross shedding rays of glory are particularly noteworthy.

SACRED IMAGE, 1950s. Stoneworkers from the Midwestern region of Brazil rendered an image of the Sacred Heart of Mary on the marble surface. This representation shows Mary with a serene countenance, her left hand pointing to her heart that stands out from a bed of flowers – thus symbolizing the saint´s deity and supreme power. The borders decorated with stylized flower motifs round out this type of tomb design.

VERTICAL ELEGANCE, 19 th century. In this tomb the pedestal is in white marble and the bas-relief arabesques featuring such decorative motifs as the cross, torches, flowers, volutes and military emblem contribute to make the tomb look at the same time light and grandiose. The sculpture of the child angel duly represents the allegory of desolation.

ARCHAIC TOMB, 19 th century. A statue of an angel kneeling in prayer was placed on top of one of the oldest tombs at São Miguel Cemetery . The tomb built with ordinary brick is covered with soapstone ornaments such as stylized representations of flowering almond branches, which symbolize benevolence and divine approval.

PYRAMID, 1920s. The appropriation of the pyramid from funerary Egyptian monuments into 20 th century gravemarkers reveals an ideal of progressive architecture, as it conveys a certain aura of mystery, sobriety and grandeur on the tomb. The flattened top of the pyramid provides the base for the bust of Joaquim de Santana Andrade, sculpted in marble.

CERQUEIRA, Francisco Januário da Gama. Cemitério da capital – 1859. In: ______. Relatório: governos da Província de Goyaz de 1861-1863 : relatórios políticos, administrativos, econômicos religiosos, etc.Goiânia: Ed. da UCG, 1997. (Memórias goianas; 9).
_______. Cemitério da capital – 1859. In: ______. Relatório: governos da Província de Goyaz de 1861-1863 : relatórios políticos, administrativos, econômicos religiosos, etc.Goiânia: Ed. da UCG, 1997. (Memórias goianas; 7).
COSTA, Jairo Nascimento. Depoimento . Entrevista concedida a Marissol Martins de Santana. Goiás, 29 mar. 2003.
JAYME, Jarbas. Famílias pirenopolinas, ensaios genealógicos. Pirenópolis: Estado de Goiás, 1973.
TELES, José Mendonça. No santuário de Cora Coralina. Goiânia: Kelps, 1991.
VALLADARES, Clarival do Prado. Arte e sociedade nos cemitérios brasileiros. Rio de Janeiro, Conselho Federal de Cultura; Departamento de Imprensa Nacional, 1972. 2v.

Credits:

Project coordination and research: Maria Elizia Borges.
Website design: Catu Design, 2008.
Researcher: Marissol Santana – CNPq.
Photography: Maria Elizia Borges, Marissol Martins de Santana, Sabrina Del Bianco e Sávio Martins de Santana.
Pictures taken at the cemetery in 2001 and 2003.
Ground plan: Sávio Martins de Santana.
Translation: Izabel Burbridge.

Contact:

maelizia@terra.com.br
CEMITÉRIO SANTANA: Avenida Vereador Hugo Argenta, no 11, Qd.24, Setor Santa Barbara. CEP: 76.600, Goiás/GO.
Hours: 7AM to 6PM.
Phone: +55 (62) 372-1168.
Manager: Wilson José de Oliveira.