A walk through the most culer cemetery

BarcelonaThe workers at Les Corts Cemetery explain that it's common to see Charly Rexach walking along the main avenue, among graves and cypress trees. You only have to pay a little attention to realize you're treading on ground that's more Barça than the flagpole. Ten meters from the entrance on Avenida Juan XXIII, there's already a warning: a Barça member wrote on his tombstone for eternity that, when he died in 2011, he held membership card number 1978.

It's a weekday morning, and the streets of Les Corts Cemetery are probably one of the quietest places in urban Barcelona right now, even if they have a temporary traveling companion making background noise. The renovation work on Camp Nou, a neighbor since 1957, adds a faint metallic sound to the atmosphere, and the imposing cranes become ogres threatening the cemetery, which has an exotic feel thanks to the palm trees. "The vast majority of Barça players are in basic graves, nothing grand," explains Adrià Terol, communications manager for Cementeris de Barcelona and our tour guide. "In this cemetery, as far as we know, there are about thirty people associated with Barça. It's the cemetery in Barcelona with the most."

The first legends soon appear. Near the entrance lie César Rodríguez, the second-highest scorer in the history of Barça men's football, surpassed only by Leo Messi; Josep Samitier, the fifth-place finisher in this ranking 93 years after his last match for Barça; president Narcís de Carreras, who made his fortune under the motto "More than a club," and Ricard Maxenchs, Barça's communications manager for over 20 years. On the other hand, the club's founder, Joan Gamper, is not buried in Les Corts. The reason is that he was a Protestant, and that cemetery does not have a specific space for this branch of Christianity. Gamper, like Josep Lluís Núñez, can be found in the Montjuïc Cemetery.

The Black Madonna of Kubala

A figure of the Black Madonna with a Hungarian flag around her neck decorates Kubala's tombstone. The flowers are fresh. "They're usually brought by the family or Barça itself," says Terol. From striker to goalkeeper. The family of Urruti, who died in a car accident at just 49 years old, decided to decorate the tombstone with a drawing of the footballer's face wearing a Barça goalkeeper's shirt and a Barça scarf. Also written on the tombstone is Joaquim Maria Puyal's legendary quote after the San Sebastián native saved a penalty in Valladolid that gave Barça a La Liga title: "Urruti, I appreciate you".

"Many people ask us about Barça footballers. They even ask us to do guided tours. We also do some cultural tours as a group, but they're not exclusively focused on Barça," explains Terol. Cementerios de Barcelona intends to create a route through Les Corts cemetery focused on Barça and with the club's collaboration, especially considering we're in the midst of the Barça 125th anniversary events. There was a meeting between both parties, but nothing has been finalized yet.

Aside from the names already mentioned, other people from the Barça world who are also buried in this cemetery include footballers Paulino Alcántara and Estanislau Basora, masseur and athlete Ángel Mur Navarro, the president of the management committee Joan Trayter, and Josep Mussons, vice president of Núñez. Also Vicenç Piera, a Barça footballer from Can Bruixa, a farmhouse owned by his family. Piera made his debut with the first team thanks to an injury to Paulino Alcántara, and they are now neighbors in the cemetery. The Can Bruixa man shares a niche with his wife, Maria Dinarés, a Barça fan closely associated with the club during the first half of the 20th century.

Julio César Benítez ended up in a cemetery.

Currently, Les Corts Cemetery is responsible for maintaining the niche in the event that the deceased has no descendants if they are a person of public interest. It is classified as a cultural asset, and it is ensured that their remains will remain there to prevent the mistakes of the past from being repeated. Julio César Benítez, the Uruguayan footballer who died tragically at the age of 27 before a Barça-Madrid match in 1968, was initially buried in a niche in Les Corts Cemetery. But years passed, the concession expired, no family responded to the requests, no one realized he was a former Barça player, the grave was emptied, and his remains ended up in a bone box in the same cemetery. "This wouldn't happen now," Terol assures.

The Camp Nou cheerleading began in 1958 with Josep Tortosa, an iconic figure who would walk around the stadium with the slogan: "Barcelona fans at heart, shout with me: Barça!", followed by a triple round of applause. Chronicles from the time explain that he already cheered with his back to the game, facing the stands, a very common practice among those in charge of the cheerleading stands today. Tortosa is also buried in the Les Corts cemetery, in a niche with a tombstone bearing a photograph of him with the Barça flag and a ceramic estelada in the shape of the territory of Catalonia. Perhaps it's one of the stops Charly Rexach makes when he walks around there. "Tortosa, don't give it any more, man, leave it now, you're soaked," journalist Xavier Bosch recalled Rexach saying to Tortosa from the pitch during a Barça - Las Palmas match in the 1970s played in the rain.