Pyrenees residents: abandoned cemeteries should be preserved for their 'human value'

The last inhabitants of the village of Sant Sebastià, in the Pyrenean county of Pallars Sobirà, left in the 1960s. Buildings began to crumble as residents moved out, but many of the cemetery's crosses are still standing.

Anna Servent, an elderly woman who lives in the nearby town of Sarroca, still remembers when people lived there.

"Everything is in ruins," she told the Catalan News Agency. "One of the walls fell a few years ago and you could see a few coffins even. The council rebuilt it but I think it's fallen again."

Servent recalls seeing bones scattered about. "I gathered them and put them back in the cemetery myself," she said with a pained look on her face, adding that all of her "friends" from Sant Sebastià were there.

Mencui, a town with only a dozen inhabitants

Mencui's cemetery is just below the highway, discernible only by a single cross covered in flowers.

 

Josep Nus is one of the town's few residents, and he's already asked the local council to put up walls to protect the old graveyard. His worry: wild boars, which he sees there on a daily basis. The council has said it will build a barrier.

Besan, only accessible on foot

Ignasi Sinfreu's family is from Besan, a village that can only be reached on foot on a 3-km path from the larger road.

When his godparents passed away, they were taken to the cemetery with the help of an animal-pulled cart, he recalled. Sinfreu wants the cemetery to be preserved in honor of his ancestors and for its "sentimental and human value."

And when his time comes, he told the Catalan News Agency, he wishes to be buried there as well. 

Norís, population: 1

Only one person lives in the town of Norís, which is part of the municipality of Alins. And with no one around, wild boars have free rein – including in the cemetery.

To the dismay of Norís' single inhabitant, wild boars have burrowed through what is left of the cemetery and dug up human remains.