De svenska städernas begravningsplatser 1770-1830 : Arkitektur, sanitet och det sociala rummet

Sammanfattning: The second half of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries meant a reform of burial practice across Europe. Urban graveyards were criticised as unsanitary and socially deficient and the authorities therefore urged towns to establish cemeteries on the urban periphery. Sweden was influenced by these changes and between 1770 and 1830 many towns replaced the ancient graveyard with a new cemetery on the urban periphery. A letters patent of 1805 brought the cemeteries under the control of the Board of Public Works and Buildings (Överintendentsämbetet). Architects were thus assigned a new type of task.The purpose of this thesis is to describe, analyse and discuss the new funerary architecture in relation to contemporaneous architectural theory and practice. The study comprises numerous cemeteries dating from a limited time period, including those of a seemingly anonymous and simple nature. The study is based on architecture, architectural drawings and the cemeteries themselves, but it has also been essential to widen the focus of attention to include the histories of science, religion, ideas and society in order to interpret the material more fully. The study of building types in relation to their socio-historical context has been my primary concern. The thesis divides into three main themes, of which the first two parts deal with prototype and how ideas were put into practice. They also look at how central authority fulfilled its architectural responsibilities. Part three takes up the theme of how the dead, following the wide-ranging plague epidemic 1710-1713, came to be seen as a problem for society. Part four looks at social aspects including opposition to the cemeteries. It also analyses how the emerging middle classes used cemeteries to mark their increasingly prominent position in society. The thesis demonstrates that cemetery origin and form stemmed not only from architectural theory but also from social ambition and the demands of sanitation. Above all, the cemeteries belong to an urban-planning tradition that aimed to create the ideal, well-ordered and healthy town.