On the hill to the south of the Anella Olímpica stretches this huge cemetery, the Cementiri del Sud-Oest (or 'Cementiri Nou'), which extends down the southern side of the hill. Opened in 1883, it’s an odd combination of elaborate architect-designed tombs for rich families and small niches for the rest. It includes the graves of numerous Catalan artists and politicians, and, at the entrance, the Col·lecció de Carrosses Fúnebres.
Among the big names are Joan Miró, Carmen Amaya (the flamenco dance star from La Barceloneta), Jacint Verdaguer (the 19th-century priest and poet to whom the rebirth of Catalan literature is attributed), Francesc Macià and Lluís Companys (nationalist presidents of Catalonia; Companys was executed by Franco’s henchmen in the Castell de Montjuïc in 1940), Ildefons Cerdà (who designed L’Eixample) and Joan Gamper (the founder of the FC Barcelona football team, aka Hans Gamper). Many victims of Franco’s postwar revenge were buried in unmarked graves here – the last of them in 1974. Both buses 9 and 21 stop around 10 minutes' walk away – the cemetery is easy to spot.
