Cementerio Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis

Outside the walls of Castillo San Felipe del Morro, a colonial-era Catholic cemetery holds much of Puerto Rico's dead who mattered most. Construction began in 1863 under Ignacio Mascaro; the fortress wall alongside it runs roughly 39 feet high and 15 to 20 feet wide. According to one chaplain's account, the colonial Spanish government positioned the cemetery to overlook the Atlantic Ocean deliberately — the water meant to symbolize the spirit's passage to the afterlife. Nationalists, abolitionists, poets, composers, and an Academy Award-winning actor are all buried here.