Despite the current mayor of Seville, José Luis Sanz, publicly denouncing "scandalous neglect" at the San Fernando cemetery in 2023, the condition of human remains piled in an openly accessible area has not changed. Recently taken photographs show the bones and coffins in the same state as when the complaint was filed with the Prosecutor's Office, which later dismissed the case.
In the area, which anyone can visit without any control, loose skeletal remains and those in bags are observed, accumulated in a type of pit under a concrete slab with openings acting as vents. The scene has been compared to catacombs, but with the remains "piled up as if they were trash," according to visitors. Used coffins are also stacked next to the bones.
Before going to the Prosecutor's Office, Sanz, then in opposition, had already reported the existence of "hundreds of human remains accumulated in a dumping ground" and the discovery of "new human remains scattered." The formal complaint, signed by the PP municipal spokesperson Juan de la Rosa, requested an investigation into possible desecration of corpses and criticized the "lack of resources and means" for cemetery employees.
The Prosecutor's Office, however, found no criminal offense and closed the complaint in June 2023. Subsequently, an internal investigation by the City Council, initiated after the PP's complaint and including testimony from cemetery workers, was also closed in the summer of 2023, already under Sanz's mayorship.
The case generated strong political controversy between the PP and PSOE. The popular party criticized the "dantesque, shameful, degrading, and horrible image" of the unidentified remains, while the socialist local government accused Sanz of "manipulating" the situation by disseminating images of a general ossuary as if they were public remains. The neglect of the old Franco-era ossuary was not new, with structural cracks detected since 2013.
