In an area of 700 hectares, the 1st cemetery of Zakynthos includes impressive sculptures created by great artists such as Georgios Dimitriadis and Iakovos Malakates, and other local craftsmen. The history of the Cemetery began on 26 November 1850 when the town council sent a letter to the prefect asking permission for the construction of the Cemetery.The chapel of Saint Theofilos was built in the center of the Cemetery. It is a chapel dedicated to the Holy Cross from the Catholics of the island, the janitor’s residence and the morgue. The aforementioned buildings were torn down after the earthquakes of 1953. The 1st cemetery of Zakynthosfeatures some of the most significant memorials of the islandsuch as the temple-shaped grave of the English banker and grecophil Samuel Barff, who had settled in Zakynthos in 1816 till his death in 1880, the grave of the Karabinis family that resembles a cave with a marble statue of an angel on the top and a big relief carving of three men in white marble, as well as the grave of the Zakynthian politician Konstantinos Lomvardos. Konstantinos Lomvardos took the lead during the Union of the Ionian Islands with Greece and served as President of the Parliament in 1870-1871.