Cementerio Catolico San Vicente de Paul
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Cementerio Catolico San Vicente de Paul
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The cemetery entrance gate in 2010
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 Location of Ponce and the cemetery in Puerto Rico
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| Location | Alma Sublime Street Ponce, Puerto Rico |
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| Coordinates | 18°01′00″N 66°38′02″W / 18.016596°N 66.633782°WCoordinates: 18°01′00″N 66°38′02″W / 18.016596°N 66.633782°W |
| Area | 9.2 acres (3.7 ha) |
| Built | 1901 |
| Architectural style | Classical Revival, Spanish Revival, Art Deco |
| NRHP Reference # | 88001249 |
| Added to NRHP | August 25, 1988 |
The Cementerio Católico San Vicente de Paul (English: Saint Vincent de Paul Catholic Cemetery) is a cemetery in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico. It is the only cemetery in Puerto Rico with a group of niches built forming a basement, in which the burials occurred beneath ground level, thus giving the effect of a catacomb. The cemetery is named after Vincent de Paul (24 April 1581 – 27 September 1660), the French Roman Catholic priest who dedicated his life to serving the poor. It was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
Cementerio Catolico San Vicente de Paul is located off Puerto Rico Route PR-123 in barrio Magueyes Urbano. PR-123 used to be signed PR-10, and this last route numbering might still be seen in some older documents about this cemetery. The cemetery is located on a site with a steep terrain gradient.
During the turn of the 20th century the priests of San Vicente de Paul built a private Catholic cemetery in Ponce. The site was blessed and opened to the public during 1901. The wealthy families of the area bought plots for $60 and began to develop the cemetery with magnificent graves and mausoleums. Today, the cemetery is "squeezed" between sprawling urban residential developments that now fully surround it.
Ponce, located in the south coast of Puerto Rico, was one of the wealthiest settlements of the island at the turn of the 20th century. Given the status of area cemeteries at the time, the Catholic cemetery offered an exclusive precinct in which the rich could bury their dead. For this reason almost all the tombs are magnificent in their design, ornamentation, and construction. Some of the best examples of funerary architecture in Puerto Rico of the early 20th century period can be seen in this cemetery. Marble sculptures from Italy, Spain and other parts of Europe adorn many of the tombs. Most tombs are covered with Ponce's ubiquitous stylish pink marble as well.
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