Description
It has been declared of historical interest.
Blenheim opened in 1659.
Beit Haim Blenheim cemetery oldest sections dating from 1659 and 1726, turning it into one of the first cemeteries in the New World.
The cemetery has 5500 buried people, where in many cases their stones have been adorned with beautiful biblical-themed sculptures, as well as other cases where the sculptures relate to the name of the deceased.
The inscriptions on the gravestones are in Portuguese, Hebrew, Spanish, English, Dutch, French and there is also one in Yiddish. There are no inscriptions in Judeo-Spanish.
This historical cemetery is located about twenty minutes away from Willemstad. It contains hundreds of fascinating monuments with unique examples of Jewish burial arts and interesting inscriptions in Portuguese, Spanish, Hebrew and other languages.
It was originally established in the open field and close to the first agricultural settlements that were property of the first Sephardic settlers.
Today the cemetery is unfortunately surrounded by a large oil refinery and its gravestones are constantly affected by the harmful effects of the smoke emitted by it.
The last burials that took place in this cemetery are from the 1950s.
Due to its antiquity, its art and its historical heritage, Blenheim is an extraordinary international monument.
