El Cuadrado Luxburg Carolath Cemetery
The Luxburg Carolath Square is one of the oldest and most important operational cemeteries in Venezuela. The Luxburg-Carolath Cemetery was built between 1876 and 1877 and has more than 10,000 burials. The Luxburg Carolath Square is privately owned and operated by the Venezuelan, German and Swiss Luxburg Carolath Foundation.
The cemetery is located on Las Delicias Avenue in the city of Maracaibo, capital of Zulia State, the second largest city in Venezuela. The cemetery is one of the oldest in the country and was officially established on November 12, 1879 and was called "Nuevo Cementerio" before being renamed "El Cuadrado.
The Luxburg Carolath Square was declared a national, regional and municipal heritage site in 2005. The Luxburg Carolath Foundation is the official owner and administrator of the cemetery.
Donation
The Luxburg Carolath Foundation received The Square cemetery as a donation in August 2019. During the donation process, the last owners added the name of the cemetery and it became: "The Square of the Grafen von Luxburg Fursten zu Carolath-Beuthen und Prinzen von Schoenaich -Carolath.
The Luxburg Carolath Foundation received The Square as a donation in August 2019. The condition of the cemetery was and still is in total disrepair. 95% of the graves have been desecrated, all columbariums destroyed and looted. The Luxburg Carolath Foundation already carried out the cleaning works of the cemetery and began to prepare a plan for the recovery and reconstruction of the cemetery in conjunction with the Government of Zulia and the Mayor's Office of Maracaibo. As it is a national, state and municipal patrimony, all works must be approved by all state levels.
Historical Cemetery
El Cuadrado is the first cemetery in Venezuela to have its own coat of arms, flag, anthem and special flagpole. It is a patrimonial cemetery unique in all Latin America because it is composed of 3 other cemeteries that were incorporated to it in 1942 on the occasion of the reconstruction of the city of Maracaibo, which are:
The General Cemetery of the city of Maracaibo or also known as the Colonial Cemetery or Old Cemetery was inaugurated in 1829.
The Foreigners Cemetery, also known as the German or English Cemetery was inaugurated in 1834 - in this cemetery were buried all Protestant Christians Protestant Jews Evangelical Christians, Muslims, etc. - all are not Roman Catholics.
The most famous cemetery in St. Lucia founded in 1881. The three iconic historic cemeteries were closed in 1942 and all the dead transported to The Square. The de facto Luxburg Carolath Cemetery contains within it 3 different historical cemeteries in one.
The Square preserves today the different cultures, nationalities, religions, history and genealogy of the Marabinos and Zualians since 1829, which represents an enormous social, multi-religious, ecumenical, historical and cultural unique value.
Reconstruction
The reconstruction project consists primarily of preserving the cemetery for future generations, further securing its cultural historical status by building a church within the cemetery to return to the past tradition of having a cemetery built around a church. The church will be named "La Union de la Iglesia" (Spanish - The Church Union) in recognition of the many citizens of different races, nationalities and religions buried on the grounds of the Cuadrado. This name was proposed by the World Union of Ecumenical Ecclesiastical Churches (Conferencia Ecumenica Ecleciastica Mundial CEEM in Spanish). Reconstruction of the old and construction of the new columbarium; high retaining and security walls; professional landscaping work in planting trees that no longer destroy the graves with their roots; reconstruction of the entrance building with bathroom and offices. The Foundation will hire outside firms and experts in cemetery management and construction in order to fully preserve the ancient tombs, style and history of the cemetery. The architectural styles will best represent The Luxburg-Carolath Square. This will be done for the first time in a Venezuelan cemetery: to date, no professional cemetery architectural design has been done in Venezuelan cemeteries.