The Guissona City Council inaugurated the expansion of the municipal cemetery last Friday, an action that adds 156 new niches and 120 columbaria on a plot of 3,043 square meters after an investment of 620,000 euros initiated in November of last year.
The opening comes with a change of focus in the use of the premises. The council has conditioned the Fòrum to host farewell ceremonies of any religion and presented the facility as a space open to the different confessions that coexist in the municipality.
Jaume Ars opened the premises to all confessions present in Guissona
Representatives of the Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, Protestant, Evangelical, and Greek Catholic communities participated in the event. The mayor, Jaume Ars, argued that the cemetery must respond to the religious diversity of the town.
"All people and religions have a common denominator, which is to treat death with respect and dignity, and that is what we want for this cemetery" - Jaume Ars, mayor of Guissona
Ars also stated that the facility is open to all confessions and traditions that coexist in Guissona because, in his words, it is a space that belongs to everyone. The adaptation of the Fòrum is part of the adaptation of the funeral facility to ceremonial uses of different beliefs.
The expansion raised the cemetery to 7,144 square meters
With the works now completed, the funeral facility reaches a total area of 7,144 square meters. The complex now houses 1,856 niches, 140 columbaria, and three pantheons from the old part.
The new area is connected to the original cemetery by an access through the expansion carried out in 1999. The newly inaugurated project thus joins previous interventions on a facility with more than a century and a half of history.
The original section of the cemetery was built in 1861 to replace the one on Tint street, in the space where the Iesso archaeological park is now located. Later, in 1986, the council declared the current necropolis a Cultural Asset of Local Interest.
Before this expansion, the municipal cemetery incorporated the Empremtes space in 2019, intended for the remembrance and homage of gestational losses.