Señora Amelia Goyri

After entering the neo-Romanesque northern gateway (1870), there’s the tomb of independence leader General Máximo Gómez (1905) on the right (look for the bronze face in a circular medallion). Further along past the first circle, and also on the right, are the monument to the firefighters (1890) and the neo-Romanesque Capilla Central (1886) in the center of the cemetery. Just northeast of this chapel is the graveyard’s most celebrated (and visited) tomb, that of Señora Amelia Goyri, better known as La Milagrosa (the miraculous one), who died while giving birth on May 3, 1901. The marble figure of a woman with a large cross and a baby in her arms is easy to find, due to the many flowers piled on the tomb and the local devotees in attendance. For many years after her death, her heartbroken husband visited the grave several times a day. He always knocked with one of four iron rings on the burial vault and walked away backwards so he could see her for as long as possible. When the bodies were exhumed some years later, Amelia’s body was uncorrupted (a sign of sanctity in the Catholic faith) and the baby, who had been buried at its mother’s feet, was – allegedly – found in her arms. As a result, La Milagrosa became the focus of a huge spiritual cult in Cuba and thousands of people come here annually with gifts in the hope of fulfilling dreams or solving problems. In keeping with tradition, pilgrims knock with the iron ring on the vault and walk away backwards when they leave.