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The study of public cemeteries is a subject of great interest to local history. Created in the 19th century, analysing these spaces and their material heritage allows for multidisciplinary approaches. The work carried out by Gonçalo Vasconcelos e Sousa and Francisco Queiroz on this subject focussed on cemeteries with artistic potential in Porto and, based on them, an approach was created for the study of cemeteries, in general, in the context of art history. Based on the contributions and analysis models of these authors, we propose to extend the study of cemeteries beyond the city of Porto. Our work is a first contribution to the study of cemeteries in Vila Nova de Gaia, answering questions about the creation and development of these spaces.
We decided to study the public cemeteries in Vila Nova de Gaia in the 19th and 20th centuries, not only because of the lack of data on these spaces, but also to contribute to the local history of the municipality. Throughout this dissertation we analyse the history of cemeteries at a national level and the public cemeteries of Vila Nova de Gaia in particular. In order to do this, we used unpublished documentation, namely the council minutes from the Sophia de Mello Breyner Municipal Archive and monographs of the parishes in the municipality. With this data we worked on twentynine cemeteries in Vila Nova de Gaia, identifying dates of creation and expansion. We understand the connection between these spaces and the epidemics of the 19th century, as well as the processes of acquisition, expansion and donation of land with an obvious impact on the development of urban spaces.
The documentary survey made it possible to gather data that led to the creation of a model analytical catalogue, establishing new knowledge about cemeteries. In this way, we proved the ability to study the cemetery from an art history perspective, contributing to the local history of Vila Nova de Gaia and to future studies.