10/21/2026
Behind an iron gate on Cordova Street in St. Augustine lies a burial ground whose story starts long before the gravestones. This is Tolomato Cemetery. 🕯️
Back in Spanish colonial times, this ground was the village of Tolomato, home to Guale Indian Christians and the Franciscan friars who served them. The Guale had come south from the Georgia coast, and their little mission community shows up on a Spanish map of St. Augustine from 1737. Over time the land became the town's Catholic burial ground, and it kept that role through Spanish, British and American rule.
Some remarkable people rest here. Augustin Verot, the first Bishop of St. Augustine, lies in the small mortuary chapel at the back. Father Félix Varela, a Cuban priest and reformer, was buried here for about sixty years before his remains were returned to Cuba. And in 1801, a man named Jorge Biassou was laid to rest here. He had been a leader in the Haitian Revolution before becoming a general for Spain in Florida, and his grave is now unmarked. ⛪
The wooden church that once stood here is long gone, but a weathered coquina bell tower survived. The cemetery officially closed in 1884, though at least two families slipped in later burials anyway and were fined for it. 🌳
Most visitors walk right past the gate on their way downtown. Which of these life stories would you most want to learn more about?
