Recently in the newspaper it was announced that possibly money would be available for the restoration and preservation of the mortuary of the old city cemetery of Leeuwarden. Since I knew the place as a remarkable and beautiful park-like piece of history, I decided to take some photos. Maybe the whole place, except its entrance and the (maybe) restored mortuary wouldn’t exist anymore in a couple of years. It isn’t far from my working place, at the corner of the street. This is the short history of the place, as described on a glass-covered plate at the entrance:
The entrance, the mortuary-ruin, and an old drawing posted near the entrance, with my shadow on it
The Old City Cemetery was built between 1830 and 1833. It’s located where around A.D. 50 the mound called “Fiswerd” was being heaped. Fiswerd was mentioned for the first time around 1460, at the foundation of St. Ann’s Monastery on this place. But soon thereafter the sisters moved to inside the city walls (the cemetery is outside the city walls of that time). Then the buildings were used for housing the leprous In the 18th century only a farm’s barn remained named Fiswert. When in 1829 the Leeuwarden municipality purchased this land to build another cemetery on it, still outside the city, no existing building was reported.
Lucas Peter Roodbaard (1782-1851), a famous national landscape architect (he also designed gardens and parks for the Royal Family) designed the cemetery. He drew an amply planned cemetery with four grave yards, distributed over five sections. The first section was intended for the very rich and the nobility. The last section was intended for the very poor whose funeral costs were paid by the municipality. Next to it, a separate part was reserved for the Jewish.
On the 3d of July, 1833 the first funeral took place. From that day on the funerals were daily functions, considering the almost 50,000 who found their last resting place here until around 1960. After 1919 no new graves were issued anymore. Since then, the number of funerals gradually decreased. On 31 December, 1969 the cemetery was closed after the last funeral in the summer of that year. Since 1967 the cemetery is a State Monument. Because of threatening decay two foundations have been trying to restore and preserve it for the city and posterity. However, it appeared to be impossible to stop further decay.
I find it so sad, that no money can be found to restore the place. It is a State Monument, which means that no changes are allowed in the cemetery-park nor the buildings on it, except restoration. But no government money is provided to preserve the place, so the local municipality can either pay the preservations by themselves, or private initiatives can make this possible by fund raising. These attempts have been made, but without success. The pictures show the maintenance state. On the one hand they illustrate the atmosphere: The majority of the dead who lie buried here, are people who almost nobody can remember anymore as being alive. It seems as if the place is for people who are “really, totally” passed away. Compare it to a modern cemetery still in use, and you will agree that on this new cemetery the dead seem “less dead” than on a place like this. Who wants to spend money to such a place? Would the dead care? Would their families care? On the other hand, the photos illustrate the shame of negligence. The stones, the iron work, the far greater part of it is at least 70 years old, and especially the Jewish section would deserve attention considering the fact that almost all Jews of Leeuwarden have been murdered by the Nazis, like in all Dutch cities, some Jewish buildings are still reminding their former presence elsewhere in the city.
5 comments:
I am not so sure that this is not going to happen more and more. Our Church grave yards are filled to capacity but people are buried on top after about 100 years. I do not like cremation that much. I prefer the traditional Christian burial so it saddens me that these places become neglected.
I know the dead should rest in peace but I am not sure that I should mind if the cemetery where I will be buried was used for other things. It is a difficult problem in countries like ours where land is in short supply
The photos are lovely. I would write 'breathtaking' but that'd prolly border a pun.
I'm afraid the world is headed for common English - or no English at all..
Lethe, thank you for the photo-compliment. But me no understand "prolly border a pun", I try do best to write common English but mother teached me Dutch. Happily there are pictures to say things without words. Thank you.
When I see an old cemetery, I think of the history, the lives that shaped what we are today. Your photographs are a powerful reminder the legacy that those who have gone on before left us. The Jewish section is power reminder of what was, but is no more. It's a powerful memorial to the evil that was afflicted upon the Neatherlands, upon her citizens. It will be a sad moment in time when those who are resting there are forgotten completely.
Our time is so short on this earth and it won't be long that we too will be forgotten. Yet when life is lived to it's fullest, with purpose and in the possibilities of our creator, the legacy of our life lives on in the lives of those who come after.
When I lived in a small town in Ontario, most of the older families have roots that go back to the earliest days of settlement have their own cemeteries. To walk through those grounds you had a keen sense of the history that shaped the community, the province and the country. Cemeteries are national treasures and need to be maintained.
One of the most beautiful cememties that I have seen is located in Toronto, called Mount Pleasant. It's huge and goes back a couple of hundred years. There are biking and walking trails that meander throughout the cemetery. Some of the greats of Canadian history lay there along side ordinary men and women, social activists and the thousands of immigrants who built the country. They all speak to the amazing story of what this country is today. Plots are still sold in the cemetery.
Stephen, I agree with you. Your remarks about time completely match with the poem by the Dutch poet Rutger Kopland I translated in my recent post "my aunt's birthday". There is nothing more we humans can say about it, as Evie says: good and evil is around us and within us. I know you are religious and put the good into practice, and that's the example Jesus gave us, we cannot do or know more than that. For one reason or another, I feel attracted to churchyards and cemeteries because they remind us of the foolish things we find important and the important things we neglect. The 4th of May is our National Memorial Day of the people that lost their lives in W.W. II; the day after, we memorize our liberation by the allied forces. The older people are more involved than the younger people. My son (9) is reading a boýs' book about a boy who experienced how life was during the war years and the liberation, without the horrific details which are beyond a person's imagination, so he learns about war and what people can do to each other in extreme circumstances. Nice to write this, I hope we contact more like this.
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