As the days get shorter and the temperature falls, I remember the clear bright light of Comillas. It seems very distant now but it is only three weeks since we returned. The same evening I captured the Monumento we walked across to the adjoining headland, home to Cementerio de Comillas, a spectacular graveyard in an enviable location – tombs with a view.
The cemetery of Comillas is located on the site of an abandoned parish church from the 15th or 16th century and is guarded by the Ángel exterminador Fachada:
Tourists, like me, come to gawp; the locals come to place flowers and dust down their dead relatives. I am touched and envious. I have nowhere to go. Burned to ashes, my dead are cast to the four winds:
That’s me in the corner
That’s me in the spotlight
Losing my religion
Trying to keep up with you
And I don’t know if I can do it …
Consider this
The hint of the century
Consider this
The slip that brought me
To my knees failed
What if all these fantasies
Come flailing around
Now I’ve said too much.
northumbrian : light 
Great post. I love that first shot. The angel looks like it is standing at the gates of hell, making sure no one or no thing gets out!
Thanks Cate – long may it stay there 😉
Beautiful, Robin. I’m sorry you have no place to leave offerings for your dead.
Thanks Julie – I rarely think about it except when I see others tending graves.
Hi Robin, great shots.
Interesting one about cremation ~ I’m in the same boat as you but wouldn’t have it any other way really. I tend to go to places that were loved by those who have died if I want to be ‘near’ them.
Thanks Jean – mine keep popping up in my dreams and usually I am in trouble for something or other. So life goes on as it always did 😉
Oh well, too much change might be a major shock to your system!
Love the editing in the first shot as well as the entire post.
janet
Many thanks Janet
These are beautiful images; especially the first and second. I accept the practicalities of cremation and, like Jean, rely on happy places for my connection with loved ones who have gone. But as a family historian, I despair. Headstones are such a special way of connecting with ancestors.
Thanks Su – it’s an interesting dilemma – leave space for the living or leave stories for the future. I am just glad there was a time when such a dilemma did not exist.
I guess with new technologies that allow us to create / tell stories in different ways, we can only hope that headstone “stories” are preserved. And really headstones are a very particular historical artifact; only available to those who could afford them and whose deaths were considered worth remembering.
Beautiful post – and I love Comillas. I have told my family that I do not want to be thrown to the winds. I might be cremated, but want a place for my urn – a place to go to and think.
Thanks Leya – a sensible compromise.
A fine post all round, Robin.
Thanks Tish – it needs to be, my output has been flagging of late. Come winter and no golf or motorcycling maybe things will change 😦
Great images Robin, especially the top one- it suggests a guardian protecting us all-
Many thanks Meg, much appreciated. Hope you are keeping well – it has been a very busy summer and I have been getting behind with comments and views on WordPress but I mostly keep up to date with your posts and they remain consistently excellent and very creative. All the best, R
Love this evocative post. Would love to explore this fascinating church for real one day. Thank you for sharing this captivating discovery. It’s amazing how you capture statues with your own signature style. Superb.
Many thanks Lita – I recommend the northern Spanish coast in general and Comillas in particular.
Thanks for tip. Looks beautiful and I have yet to explore that region.