If you want a quiet walk through the island's past under old trees, Bosque Bello Cemetery on North 14th Street is the oldest cemetery in Fernandina Beach, and it's still an active, city-run burial ground. The name is Spanish for "beautiful woods," and it fits: live oak is the most common tree on the grounds, per the city's 2015 master plan, along with laurel oak, red cedar and hickory. The city says the Spanish established the cemetery around 1798, when the land was set aside as a public burial ground. The oldest headstone still standing dates to 1813.
The history comes in layers. An 1847 U.S. Senate bill formally dedicated the burial ground to the city of Fernandina, and the city added a "new" section in the mid-1940s, on the other side of Magnolia Street from the old one. Victims of the 1877 yellow fever epidemic are buried here. The cemetery was integrated until the early 20th century, when it was split into white and colored sections, and for much of its life it went by a plainer name, the Old Town Cemetery. In 2026 the state approved its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places and sent it to the National Park Service for a final decision.
To find your way around, the visitors bureau offers a free Bosque Bello walking guide at the Amelia Island Welcome Center downtown, and it points out notable graves. The Amelia Island Museum of History and the Amelia Island Genealogical Society also stage Graveside Chronicles, an annual ticketed tour (the 2026 edition was in October) where costumed interpreters tell the stories at eight gravesites. The museum warns that the terrain may not suit wheelchairs or walkers. Since the cemetery sits at the edge of Old Town Fernandina, it's easy to fold into a walk around the Spanish plat.