Also known as the Victoria Gardens, they were commissioned to be planted in an orchard by the Marchioness of la Quinta Roja named Sebastiana del Castillo. Her son, Diego Ponte del Castillo, died in April 1880 but the Bishop did not allow him to be buried in the family vault because of his involvement with the Freemasons, leaving him to be interred in the non-Catholic section of the cemetery. The shame this would have brought on the family led the Marchioness to build a garden with a mausoleum in which to lay her son’s body to rest.
Eventually they were granted permission to bury their son in the family vault and the mausoleum was never actually used, though it still stands today as a monument against religious intolerance. Made of marble from Lyon, the small building was completed in 1883 under the orders of the French architect Adolph Coquet. It is interesting to note that the pathways, fountains and gardens surrounding it were laid out in a symbolic arrangement linked to Freemasonry.
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