English Cemetery
The English Cemetery is where Lisbon’s once-sizeable English community was laid to rest over the years. Thanks to the Anglo-Portuguese alliance in the 14th century, the kingdoms of Portugal and England maintained close relationships, especially in trade. This led to the port wine industry in the city of Porto, which was mostly in British hands, and to a considerable number of British merchants settling in Lisbon. The cemetery, found behind a gate across from Jardim da Estrela, is filled with tombstones mixing English and Portuguese surnames, showing how British and Portuguese families intermarried over the centuries, but it’s the tomb of novelist Henry Fielding (author of Tom Jones) that most visitors look for. Fielding moved to Lisbon hoping that better weather would improve his health, but ended up dying in the city. A plaque also reveals that Thomas Barclay, appointed by George Washington as the first American consul in France, died in Lisbon in 1793 and is buried here.
