Paying your respects, virtually

Valencia City Hall is introducing an internet service allowing mourners unable to attend funerals to watch services via online streaming, as well as signing a digital condolence book.

The free service, which will be available from November 17, is the first of its kind in Europe, says City Hall. It will work via cameras installed in the municipal mortuary and crematorium. Transmissions will be broadcast via a specific page with a link that the family of the deceased will be able to distribute to those unable to attend the funeral in person.

The free service will work via cameras installed in the municipal mortuary and crematorium

The initiative is part of Valencia City Hall’s so-called Museo del Silencio (Museum of Silence) project, which aims to increase access to the city cemetery. Opened in 1807, it is the final resting place of notables figures such as Impressionist painter Joaquín Sorolla, who was buried there in 1923. A smartphone app providing a guided tour of the cemetery is also available.

“We want people to think of the place as somewhere they can go to find peace and quiet, rather than seeing the cemetery as somewhere sad,” says Lourdes Bernal, head of the city’s cemeteries’ department.