WDEC 2024 at the Eastern Cemetery in Oslo

On May 30, 2024, a special event will be held at the Eastern Cemetery in Oslo, where current projects related to environmental sustainability will be presented.

Event significance

The Cemeteries and Burials Agency of Oslo would like to inform the public about their work towards becoming more sustainable and how they meet future climate challenges. By arranging this event, they want to:

• Create acceptance and attitude change toward transforming cemeteries into wild parks rather than green well-groomed park facilities.
• Get feedback on the design of gravestones that collect rainwater and emit this water to the grave’s flower bed.
• Show how they reuse gravestones.
• Raise their reputation as a locomotive in the industry.
• Emphasize their responsibility as key contributors to the sustainable management of important city resources.
• Show that new things can be tested out also in a “conservative” industry.
• Share their expertise.

Current projects

Ongoing projects that are planned to be present:

• “Water Fear 2030” project (gravestones that collect rainwater and emit water to the grave’s flower bed)
• Rainwater collection project at Grefsen Cemetery (both the water tank project and the construction of the swamp area/rain bed)
• Use of pollinator-friendly plants and test field (flower bed)
• Flower meadows
• Other water-saving measures
• Dead tree trunks
• Reuse of gravestones
• Zero-emission equipment

Time and location of the event

Time: Thursday, May 30, 2024, from 11:30 am and throughout the day
Location: The presentations will take place in the Large Chapel at the Eastern Cemetery, and in the areas outside the chapels.

The project Water Fear 2030 will be available at the Eastern Cemetery the whole week (and probably till next summer).

If you have any questions about the event, please contact Wenche Madsen Eriksson at wenche.eriksson@gpe.oslo.kommune.no or + 47 957 05 426.

Examples of gravestones that collect rainwater

*Cover photo source: www.oslo.kommune.no

Steering Committee meeting 2024 in Oslo

In the picturesque landscapes of Oslo, Norway, on the 14th and 15th of March 2024, the ASCE Steering Committee convened, igniting a beacon of progress in the realm of sustainability and community engagement.

Meeting agenda and main outcomes:

• Membership: The meeting covered membership concerns, including economic, technical, and administrative issues, and adapting invoice procedures for each member. Strategies for resolving various membership statuses accordingly to the charter were set up.
• ASCE operations: Proposals were made regarding changes to the charter and redefining member status. Furthermore, discussions on the vision and other organizational aspects of ASCE's future operations were conducted. In doing so, both the usefulness of the changes and legal aspects were taken into account. Plans for upgrading the website and further development of an effective CRM system were also presented.
• AGM 2024-2027: The Steering Committee checked and discussed the AGM 2024 program and conference theme. The date of this year's event was confirmed, and the communication plan was established. A call for hosting AGM 2025 to 2027 will be released soon.
• WDEC: Proposals were made for this year's and future WDEC, focusing on utilizing cemeteries as communication areas for sustainability. This involves leveraging United Nations promotional materials, creating exhibitions, sharing stories of important people in sustainability, educating on water-efficient plants, preserving heritage through sustainable initiatives, etc.
• European Cemeteries Route: The future of the European Cemeteries Route is also oriented towards sustainability. The work of the Sustainability group will continue. Training academies were recognized as very beneficial, and decisions were pending on participation for the current year. The Stories project will as well focus on sustainability by addressing themes outlined by the United Nations. Furthermore, it was noted that ARtour would soon provide custom applications for European Cemeteries Route members.
• Future plans and projects: Among other things, the debate took place on possible ways to ensure the accessibility of cemeteries to disabled people. Ideas regarding activities in 2025, when we will mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, were presented. Participation in the European Heritage Days project has been discussed.

Conclusions

Overall the refreshed Steering Committee held a successful and very productive meeting.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Cemeteries Administration of the City of Oslo for their warm hospitality and impeccable organization.

More details on the individual topics discussed at the meeting will follow in further communications.

Urban cemeteries as public spaces: comparison of the Norwegian and Russian case studies

Contemporary cemeteries are intriguing examples of “in-between” places with no clear cut between public and private, civic and personal.

Planners and policy makers often see urban cemeteries as utilitarian burial grounds. However, evidence from different countries demonstrate that their role is more complex. The findings of a Norwegian research projects “Green Urban Spaces – the role of the cemetery in multicultural and interreligious urban contexts” (2014-2017) show that the cemeteries in Oslo are actively used for recreation and perceived by many of their users as green places of restoration. Is such cemetery multifunctionality just a Norwegian phenomenon or we can find similarities in other cultures?

For the comparison, this paper brings empirical evidences from Vvedenskoe cemetery (opened in 1771) in the Russian capital in Moscow. The study partly replicates the above-mentioned Norwegian study adapted to the context of Moscow and employs systematic observations of people’s activities, participant observations and interviews with cemetery visitors. Among many other cemeteries in Moscow, I chose Vvedenskoe cemetery for this study because of its close proximity to housing areas, physical layout with two entrances and comparatively wide alleys and mature vegetation.

The results show that people come to Vvedenskoe cemetery not only to visit their relatives’ graves, although it is the main activity there and more common comparing to the Norwegian case. Thanks to the big amount of heritage graves and special spiritual atmosphere Vvedenskoe cemetery is an attractive place for excursions, especially focused on arts and history. For many of the interviewees this cemetery was included into their everyday life as a place for strolling and reflections, which is similar to the findings from Oslo. Another important aspect for the visitors is the greenery of Vvedenskoe cemetery, which provides an opportunity of the contact with nature for the local residents. The Norwegian researchers had similar observations in case of Oslo. While the range and frequency of recreational activities in Vvedenskoe cemetery is lower than in the studied cemeteries in Norway, the findings clearly show that its role in the city is not limited to the utilitarian functions of a burial ground.

So far academic research of the role of urban cemeteries was focused on Northern Europe and North America and cross-cultural comparative cemetery research almost does not exist, except very few examples. In times of globalisation, cemeteries are among very small number of urban places, which are so culturally and contextually dependent and vary greatly from country to country. On the contrary, to many comparative studies in other fields, which aim to find generalised knowledge and best practices, comparative cemetery research cannot have the same goal because of the importance of the local context. However, I believe that it can give deeper and more nuanced understanding of a cemetery as a phenomenon and its potential. Policymakers and practitioners around the world are starting to acknowledge cemeteries’ multifunctional potential which is especially relevant for fast growing cities with increasing demand for green spaces, such as Oslo and Copenhagen. 

About the author

Pavel Grabalov is a PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Landscape and Society of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). He holds a Master’s degree in Urban Studies from Malmö University (2017) and has interests in urban planning and people-environment interaction. His current PhD project focuses on the role of cemeteries in contemporary densified cities. Pavel’s research aims to build new interdisciplinary knowledge on urban cemeteries as a special type of public spaces, using case studies from Scandinavian and Russian cultural contexts.

The above article has been prepared for the ASCE Conference 2019 in Ghent, Belgium. The article-related presentation is available HERE.

You can read more about Pavel Grabalov’s academic research on new cemetery policies in Oslo and Copenhagen in: Pavel Grabalov, Helena Nordh, “’Philosophical park’: Cemeteries in the Scandinavian urban context”, Social Studies, Vol. 17:1, https://journals.muni.cz/socialni_studia/article/view/13559. 

Vår Frelsers Cemetery (Oslo, Norway)

Vår Frelsers Cemetery - the romantic park where Munch and Ibsen rest in peace.

History

When Vår Frelsers Cemetery was consecrated on June 17, 1808, it was primarily a cemetery for well-to-do Oslo citizens. Those who lived in the city were affluent, and at that time, it was possible for the rich to by a burial plot before they died, something the poor could not afford to do.

In 1864, a Chapel was first built in the eastern section of the burial grounds and was later altered a number of times. The plain stone building was used for funerals about ten times per year and one of the reasons for such limited use was that those being buried were often rich and their funerals took place in one of the two important churches in Oslo at that time, Trefoldighetskirken (Trinity Church) and Oslo Cathedral.

By 1911, the cemetery was full. Afterwards, new plots were only created on the sites of those whose lease had expired. After 1952, no new plots were allotted, although it was still possible to intern urns in old family graves. From now on, it is again possible to acquire a new urn plot in the honorable cemetery.

Cemetery as a historical monument

Today, the cemetery is listed for preservation and is regarded as an important historical monument. Therefore, old graves monuments cannot be removed and it is not permitted to erect new ones. 4500 monuments are registered as especially worthy of preservation; 1600 graves of significant national or local personalities in the field of economics, politics and culture from the last half of the eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century were recorded in a database.

Garden of honor

The most important feature, in the heart of Vår Frelsers Cemetery, is the Garden of honor. The idea of a “garden of honor” for the most significant Norwegian citizens first surfaced around the end of the nineteenth century. This explains why so many important people are buried outside its edges. In 1903, the artist Hans Gude was the first to be buried in the garden and, after 1981, no new graves were created.

Two of the famous Norwegians who found their final resting place in the garden are painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944) and author Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906). The paintings “The Scream” and “Madonna” have granted Munch worldwide renown, and he drew his inspiration for them from his home and from the Oslo community of artists to which he belonged. Ibsen’s play “Brand” and “Peer Gynt” made him the best-known and controversial writer in Scandinavia. However, outside Norway, he is known above all for his drama “A Doll’s House”. No Nordic author matched him in depicting his contemporary times, or had such a world impact as his bourgeois dramas did.

Characteristics of the cemetery

Classicism and Romanticism are the two styles that characterize the cemetery in their own ways. Romanticism features throughout the cemetery, and shady copses, narrow paths and rocky outcrops are all reminders of the nature of Norway. Classicism appears most strongly in the details, in the use of symbols and in the design of individual monuments, especially in the oldest section of the cemetery. Functionalism, with its unbroken lawns and non-elaborate, plain monuments plays a significant role in the current Vår Frelsers Cemetery panorama.

Address

Vår Frelsers Cemetery
Akersbakken 32
0172 Oslo kommune
Norway

Contacts

Phone: +47 22 13 31 80
Fax: +47 52 51 60
Email: varfrelsers.gravlund@gfe.oslo.kommune.no

Website: www.oslo.kommune.no