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Workers prepare the site to house the remains of Rafael Altamira and his wife at El Campello cemetery. A.C.
El Campello finalises preparations for the funerary monument with the remains of Rafael Altamira

El Campello finalises preparations for the funerary monument with the remains of Rafael Altamira

Municipal cemetery staff have erected the dividing wall, excavated the pit where the funerary urns will be placed, and cemented the area

José Vicente Pérez Pardo

Alicante

Sábado, 11 de enero 2025, 18:20

Workers from El Campello Town Hall are finalising preparations for the marble company to begin shaping the pantheon that will house the remains of the writer Rafael Altamira and his wife Pilar Redondo Tejerina at the local cemetery. This will all be part of a monument dedicated to the humanist.

The municipal cemetery staff have been responsible for erecting the dividing wall, excavating the pit where the funerary urns will be placed, and cementing the area.

The location chosen by the mayor, Juanjo Berenguer, and the Cemetery Councillor, Cristian Palomares, in agreement with the Altamira family, is situated in the central part of the first avenue leading to the cemetery, beneath a large cypress tree.

The remains of the illustrious figure, who was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, were exhumed and repatriated last December from Mexico City, fulfilling the jurist, writer, and humanist's wish to rest in the town where he spent many happy moments, and where his parents (José Altamira Moreno and Rafaela Crevea i Cortés) and grandparents (Juan Altamira Malaver and Francisca Moreno Gaytano) are already buried.

The monument will be "simple in design", measuring 2.2 metres deep, 2.2 metres wide, and 2.17 metres high. The materials will be travertine marble—a "versatile and elegant" natural stone formed in hot springs and limestone caves—and Baltic green granite.

Inscriptions

It will feature engraved inscriptions with the names of the six people who will rest underground—Rafael Altamira and Pilar Redondo Tejerina, along with the parents and grandparents of the writer, jurist, and humanist, who have been resting in the Municipal Cemetery for decades.

The front of the work will highlight a ceramic mural featuring an image of Rafael Altamira with the backdrop of El Campello he knew, and the phrase he declared to the newspaper 'El Día' on 2 May 1935: "When I am removed from official life, I will retire to the corner of my most cherished loves: to El Campello."

After the masonry work, now completed, on Monday it will be the turn of the contracted marble company (Mármoles Cucuch, based in Novelda), which will be responsible for the cladding with noble materials, the inscriptions, engraving the names of all the people the monument will house, and ceramic decorations. For these works, the Town Hall will pay a total of 13,539.90 euros.

Once the work is completed, all the bodies will be interred in that place "immediately", except for those of Rafael Altamira and his wife, who will be interred after a protocol ceremony to be held "as soon as it is possible to coordinate the schedules of the authorities from all over Spain who have already expressed their desire to attend the event."

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todoalicante El Campello finalises preparations for the funerary monument with the remains of Rafael Altamira