Inside the Cemetery Where the Dead Don’t Rest in Peace

This article originally appeared on VICE Belgium.

It all started when I was drinking beers at a local bar and overheard people talking about La Recoleta cemetery, which they described as one of the most beautiful graveyards in the city. Interest, piqued. The following day – in 33°C tropical winter weather – I set off with my camera for a walk around this 150-year-old resting place.

On arrival, I’m immediately immersed into a world of paved little paths lined with splendid mausoleums decorated in colourful ceramic tiles and surrounded with lush green trees. I soon notice that none of the caskets are actually buried in the ground. They are all walled into crypts and mausoleums, exposed for everyone to see behind a glass window. Some of the caskets are covered by a piece of fabric and accompanied by a photo. 

As I venture deeper into the entrance of the cemetery, the beauty gives way to a more macabre spectacle. There are vaults in ruin, doors forced open, broken glass and destroyed caskets. Many of them lie half burnt in alleyways, the heat of a fire still emanating from some of them. A little further on, I catch sign of corpses and bones littering the ground. I feel sick.

I manage to find two of the cemetery’s guardians, both men, one in his 30s and the other twice his age. The younger guardian tells me it got into this state because of grave looting. At 6PM, when the doors close, people climb the cemetery’s tall walls, light fires to keep warm and cook meals; and begin spoiling the tombs, taking whatever they can. “Jewels, obviously, but also bronze plaques,” the guardian says. Local media reports also mention crosses, vases, metal-plated door handles and even the doors themselves.

Paraguay has been experiencing chronic economic instability and corruption. As it stands, around 27 percent of its population live under the poverty line. The guardians talk about the cemetery’s grim after hours activity with a mix of powerless alarm and amusement.

Despite the frequent looting, people are still regularly buried in Recoleta. A 2019 report by local newspaper ABC quotes a guardian as saying that the cemetery is guarded by 22 guards at a time. However, the cemetery is large and has 13 access gates, which makes it difficult to monitor. In January 2023, the mayor of Asuncíon doubled the city’s burial fees, promising to clean up Recoleta and reinforce its security. But to date, no improvements have been made.

Meanwhile, the families of the dead are struggling with how little the situation has improved. Many of them are opting for less appealing burial materials to deter potential thieves. Others are abandoning the tradition of burying their loved ones above ground altogether, opting instead for other cemeteries in the city where they can lay their loved ones to rest six feet under.

For the newly buried in La Recoleta, resting in peace is, for the time being, out of the question.

Scroll down to see more photos: