Behold these decayed bones, cold ashes,

In which the brief days of life come to an end.

If what you see does not shake you, mortal,

Hear the tremendous voice that speaks to you thus:

"Remember, man, that you are dust; and that, in this way,

sooner or later, you shall return to dust."

The lines engraved at the entrance to the necropolis betray its romantic nature—a movement that would turn local cemeteries into places of contemplation and meditation, with paths and benches where the living could see themselves reflected in granite tombstones. Among notable deceased and monumental tombs, there would be too many focal points for a photographic report on the Lapa Cemetery, so here is just a selection that may invite a longer visit.

Near the entrance, we found what was supposed to be the mausoleum of Luzia Joaquina Bruce and João António de Lima. João was a successful merchant who found not only business fortune in Brazil, but also the love of his life. Luzia, a native of the Brazilian state of Maranhão, had Scottish and African ancestry, but it was in Porto that she found the city where she would leave behind an extensive legacy as a benefactor.

Although they never married, as João was a man with a previous marriage, it is Luzia to whom he leaves his entire fortune, and she would use it for a long series of charitable works: in addition to various forms of support for poor young people in Porto and Maranhão, she founded the Hospital da Lapa, across the street from this mausoleum. Although Luzia was buried in Lisbon, due to her close relationship with the Santa Casa da Misericórdia, her place in the mausoleum is still vacant, in front of which stands the coffin and bust of João António de Lima.

The marital devotion continues with the sculpture commissioned by poet Maria da Felicidade do Couto Browne for her husband Manuel de Clamouse Browne, son of the French consul.

A sculpture that defies the rigidity of its material in a piece with contours that suggest organic matter and roots, it is now difficult to read the name of the deceased, engraved on the stone in 1945. But we can still read the verses of the person who commissioned this sculpture, for whom the relationship with death was a familiar place:

Between me and the human race,

What can there be in common?

If I do not yet belong to death,

I do not belong to life either;

This fate is a mystery,

Special and deceitful.

A little further down, we find a curious pyramid: the tombs of José Mendes Braga, a tobacco importer, and his wife Angélica da Natividade. The tombs are superimposed and topped by a sculptural piece.

This is the grave of a couple who died without descendants and who wanted to pay tribute to the most faithful member of their family. Legend has it that the dog depicted in the sculpture accompanied the couple in their final years and followed its owners to this tomb, where it also died.

Returning to notable figures, we arrive at the resting place of one of the most recent additions. The painter and educator Armanda Passos passed away in 2021. Although she was born in Peso da Régua, she embraced Porto as her home. She studied Fine Arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, when this course was then governed by Júlio Resende — and she never ceased to have Porto as her center of gravity.

According to Lídia Jorge, Armanda “had no model, belonged to no movements, had no strategies, and had no other purpose than to surrender herself to the world she inhabited.” During her lifetime, she donated several works to the Irmandade da Lapa, and next to her grave we can see a large tombstone engraved with her last drawing.

Anonymous graves find their ultimate expression in a mausoleum erected by a doctor from Porto (the only identifying detail we were able to ascertain without violating the privacy of the dead).

The mausoleum is identified as “?_Ninguém” (Nobody) on a striking wrought iron door. While maintaining its anonymity, this tomb still arouses curiosity, which could lead one to question how legitimate its occupant's desire for anonymity really was.

Returning to more prominent figures, the Lapa Cemetery is home to the century-old grave of Camilo Castelo Branco. This is yet another case in which the living still struggle with the final resting place of the dead. While the writer's body remains untouched, we can observe a curious coincidence—just a few meters from his grave lies the tomb of Manuel Pinheiro Alves, the husband of Ana Plácido—the same Ana Plácido whose adultery with Camilo would serve as the inspiration for Amor de Perdição (Doomed Love).

Finally, it remains to mention the bust of Ferreira Borges—the eminent merchant who was the driving force behind several innovations in the city, and also here: his bust was the first sculpture to be installed in the Lapa Cemetery.

Near his bust, you can find the first sculpture commissioned from afar: a terracotta angel, which traveled a long way from Paris to this hill in Porto.