Moscowa Cemetery & Crematorium (Arnhem, Netherlands)

Moscowa Cemetery & Crematorium lies in delightful surroundings and, aside from being a last resting place, is also popular with walkers.

The origin of the name

Moscowa Cemetery (1873) derives its name from the manor farm of the same name, which is just outside the cemetery. The farm was built in 1847 by Jacob Carel Jan baron van Heeckeren van Enghuizen. He was a military man in heart and soul who liked to name his farms after the military campaigns he undertook while serving in the French army - in this case a campaign to Moscow in 1812 under Napoleon.

Cemetery structure

Moscowa has two chapels. The buildings have the typical pointed form. Entering one of the chapels, you will see towards the end of the walkway an unusual triangular stained glass window comprising some five thousand coloured pieces of glass. The windows, developed by graphic designer Jan P.C. van Doorn, evoke interaction. The pattern is of vegetation rising from the ground, dominated by horizontal and vertical lines.

Moscowa opened a crematorium in 1974. The site features a beautiful urn garden with a wide variety of memorials, many created by artists from Arnhem and the surrounding area. Ashes may also be interred in or on an existing grave.

A popular walking site

Moscowa currently covers over thirty hectares. The burial park which dates back more than 135 years is characterised by its lovely setting, monumental design and huge diversity of flora. The many unusual conifer trees are an especially striking feature. A wide variety of birds breed at Moscowa, including the Green Woodpecker, the Tawny Owl and the Buzzard, but songbirds are also well represented. In the autumn, there is a wide array of fungi, including the Cauliflower mushroom, Fly Agaric, Bay Bolete and Penny Bun or Porcino. This makes Moscowa not only a last resting place, but also popular with walkers.

Artistic and historical value

There are a multitude of historic and art-historic reasons to take a stroll around Moscowa. There are many very special monuments and tombs signed by artists and sculptors, in all kinds of different materials. Among the more striking in the collection are a truncated obelisk, an intricately embroidered pall over a coffin and an ornately sculpted neo-Gothic cross, but also a monument with great symbolism representing Faith, Hope and Charity, an Art Nouveau memorial and a mausoleum (the only one of its kind).

Address

Moscowa Cemetery & Crematorium
Waterbergseweg 18
6815 AP Arnhem
The Netherlands

Contacts

Tel.: +31 (0)26 445 63 47
Fax: +31 (0)26 445 75 25
E-mail: info@moscowa.nl

Website: www.moscowa.nl

Westerveld Cemetery & Crematorium (Driehuis, Netherlands)

This cemetery, places in a vast dune landscape, is the final resting place for many Dutch persons who were famed at home and abroad.

About the cemetery

Westerveld Cemetery & Crematorium is placed in a vast dune landscape, with the official status of a bird sanctuary. That is one of the many things that makes this cemetery so special. The hilly terrain provides an almost intimate shelter. At the same time, Westerveld represents a historic turning point in Dutch death culture, and this magnificent location is the seat of the cremation movement in the Netherlands.

History

In the 17th century, the Westerveld country estate was an idyllic spot owned by a rich family from Amsterdam. After the site had been purchased as a cemetery in 1888, landscape architect Louis Paul Zocher (known for his design for the Vondelpark in Amsterdam) adapted the park in line with its new function.

The fact that this magnificent dune area turned into a cemetery at the end of the 19th century, was the result of a changing funeral culture. From 1 January 1866, people could no longer be buried in churches and graveyards, by order of the government. Cemeteries sprung up on the city outskirts. A number of wealthy residents of Amsterdam, mainly from the world of banking, were looking for a tranquil location for a family cemetery with a perpetual grave right. Their attention was drawn to the remote Westerveld country estate in the dunes. They entered into an agreement with the company that ran the Amsterdam-IJmuiden railway line. Until 1917, the deceased and their next of kin could be transported by a special mourning train. A special branch ran from the main line to Westerveld, complete with a mourning station and adjoining auditorium.

Design

The hilly landscape made it possible to build aboveground crypts in the dunes. In 1906, the famous Dutch architect Joseph Th. J. Cuypers (known for the new Saint Bavo Cathedral in Haarlem that was completed in 1930) designed the oldest of these aboveground crypts, which held eighteen coffins. Wandering around Westerveld you encounter various mausoleums, each with their own architecture and character.

Architect Willem Marinus Dudok has played an important role in the history of Westerveld. He designed the second cremation auditorium, an urn and a number of columbaria.

Important personalities

Westerveld, which has been managed by "the Facultatieve Group" since 2004, is the final resting place for many Dutch persons who were famed at home and abroad. In 1948, social critic and author Multatuli (the first Dutchman to be cremated, albeit in Germany) was given a monument at Westerveld, of soft marlstone with a sculpted flaming torch. A gold-coloured urn with a bronze tablet in the first columbarium reminds visitors of the physician doctor Christiaan Joannes Vaillant, the first person to be cremated in the Netherlands (1914). The monument for Aletta Henriëtte Jacobs and her husband stands against the wall of the second columbarium, close to the Impluvium. Jacobs was the first graduated woman and the first female physician in Dutch history. The bronze relief in the monument depicts a man and a woman, both kneeling down on the globe and holding a burning torch. Other famous world citizens who found their final resting-place at Westerveld include the Austrian ideologist Marxism Karl Kautsky († 1938), aviation pioneer Antony Fokker († 1939), Russian conductor Kirill Kondrashin († 1981) and Russian pianist Youri Egorov († 1988).

For them and everyone else, once a year Westerveld is home to a Concerto In Memoriam, attended by thousands of visitors who listen to impressive music and a Word of Comfort, spoken by a different guest speaker each year.

Address

Westerveld Cemetery & Crematorium
Duin en Kruidbergerweg 2-6
1985 HG Driehuis
Netherlands

Contacts

Tel. +31(0)255514843
Tel/Fax: +31(0)255530076

e-mail: info@bc-westerveld.nl
Website: Westerveld Cemetery & Crematorium

Opening hours

Every day from 09.00 to 17.00