This cemetery is the former burial place of Spanish governors during the colonial era and cholera victims back in the 1800s.

After the excecution of National Hero Dr. José P. Rizal in 1896 by a Spanish colonial firing squad, he was secretely interred in an umnmarked grave
here and would have been lost in history had it not been for the efforts of his sister Narsisa who searched for fresh graves in the city cemeteries
that fateful day and promptly marked his burial place upon discovering it. Sixteen years later, the President of the 1st Philippine Republic General
Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed Rizal as the country's National Hero and had his remains permanently interred at the Rizal Monument in Rizal Park/Luneta https://pbase.com/carinoza/luneta a few meters away from his actual excecution site https://pbase.com/carinoza/image/81756739 .

The Park is now being used as a regular site for cultural concerts.