Cemeteries and urban form: a historico- geographical approach Thomas Kolnberger Identités. Politiques, Sociétés, Espaces (IPSE), Université du Luxembourg, Campus Belval, Maison des Sciences Humaines, 11, Port des Sciences, L- 4366 Esch/Alzette, Luxembourg. E- mail: [email protected] Revised version received 13 February 2018 Abstract. Research in urban morphology rarely takes account of the specific forms of burial grounds. This paper offers a synthesis of how Christian cities of the dead mirror the cities of the living, and provides an overview of different Western European ‘funeral epochs’. The shifting location of burial grounds relates to major changes in town planning and building. Adopting a historico- geographical approach, micro-morphological transformations of grave- plot forms and their cardinal orientations and accessibility are explored in the context of changing religious beliefs, rules on hygiene, and practical and aesthetic considerations. The role of cemeteries in fringe-belt development is presented, using Vienna as a historical case study. Keywords: cemetery, churchyard, urban form, funeral epochs, fringe-belt concept Cemeteries are virtually absent from the study that this time- span can be seen as a single of urban form. Yet the spatial order of grave period despite the considerable shifts and fields, graveyards, churchyards, cemeteries regional changes. Tarlow and Nilson- Stutz and other burial grounds plays a central role (2013) provide a handbook of the archaeol- in any archaeological analysis, because in ogy of death and burial (cf. Parker Pearson, one way or another it reflects the settlements 1999). Laqueur (2015) provides a cultural/ of the living (Rugg, 2000). The necropolis or social history of Anglo-American burial ‘necrodeme’, as its smaller but more numer- practices tracing them back to Roman times; ous rural version might be called, is also an Sörries (2011) and Fischer (1996) do the same understudied element. The keyword index of for Germany. Illi (1992) analyses the ‘church- this journal does not list cemeteries or grave- yard’ in preindustrial towns in depth, focusing yards. Although the range of research and the on Switzerland in medieval and early- modern scope of the literature are large, the pertinence times. Rugg (2013) concentrates on the tran- of this literature for urban morphology is sition to modern cemeteries in rural England. either low or not immediately obvious. This Bertrand and Carol (2016) bring together a paper draws attention to the morphological collection of essays on the origins of mod- importance of the disposal of human remains. ern cemeteries with a particular focus on Walpole (2003) offers an architectural Romance-speaking Europe. longue- durée perspective on cemeteries in In contrast, this paper proposes a ‘town- the West covering various epochs. The vol- plan analysis’ of past and present burial ume edited by Classen (2016) on Death in the grounds based on an extensive literary review Middle Ages and Early Modern times shows and on the author’s own surveys of sepulchral Urban Morphology (2018) 22(2), 119–139 © International Seminar on Urban Form, 2018 ISSN 1027–4278 120 Cemeteries and urban form artefacts, grave plots, land use and location. erected on either side of the sacred road out While the author’s main area of expertise is of the city towards Eleusis, and the graves continental north- west Europe, examples situated alongside the Appian Way, one of from other areas heavily influenced by Roman the earliest and strategically most important Catholic and Protestant traditions are also Roman roads, are two well- known examples. considered. Based on the case of Vienna, the The pattern of land use (grave plots, access fringe- belt concept is employed to investigate paths, paved passageways and well- trodden the relationship of cemeteries to the historico- trails) emerged spontaneously and irregularly. geographical pattern of urban form. Enlargements were made to the existing burial An outline of various topographical loca- sites when required (Toynbee, 1971). tions and burial ground patterns is the basis for The first row of graves was loosely aligned, distinguishing four sepulchral ‘epochs’: (1) in chronological order, along the main trans- classical antiquity and early Christianity, (2) port routes out of the town. The second, third medieval and early-modern times, (3) modern and further rows of graves behind the origi- times, and (4) recent times (since the 1970s). nal row formed a more jagged line. The grave A detailed account of regional variations is not sites of people of lower social status, squeezed provided in this paper, although these might in between the towering burial markers of rich prove important and revealing (see, for exam- and important people, underlined their precar- ple, Danforth, 1982; De Pina-Cabral, 1986). ious existence. The aim is to outline the general historical Besides this type of development, there evolution of associated architectural features, were also highly individualized grave sites, town plans and cemetery planning, particu- but mostly in rural areas. Large- scale funeral larly in relation to the development of histori- monuments linked to Roman countryside vil- cal patterns of fringe belts (Conzen, 2009). las (villae rusticae) were landmarks display- Each sepulchral epoch is characterized as an ing the wealth and success of the owner’s ‘ideal model’ comprising the various features family. The ‘Igel Column’, close to Augusta and material elements of the phenotypes of Treverorum (Trier in present-day Germany) burial grounds. Historical examples are pre- is such a monument type (Mehl, 1997). The sented: first, to explain the location of burial anonymous and invisible burial places of the grounds within the urban tissue; and secondly, poor – mass graves outside the city perimeter to focus on the plot forms. revealed by archaeological evidence – are the converse of these highly individualized graves (McCormick, 2015). Classical antiquity and early Christianity The sprawl of multi-shaped micro- Classical antiquity enclosures, called ‘funeral gardens’, compris- ing several graves of an extended family, also In classical antiquity, the burial ground was influenced the irregular layout of grave sites. situated outside a walled city or an unfortified Funeral practices – including cremation with settlement, such as an unplanned Roman pro- urns for the ashes and interment of the corpse vincial town. Individual grave sites lined the with grave goods – contributed to the het- main access routes to these settlements. The erogeneity of the ‘deathscapes’. Body inter- closer to the main gates in the wall, the better ment became the socio-religious standard of for the plot owners, as the graves in the first Christianity. While Muslims had introduced row were regarded as the most prestigious. quite early the qibla, the common cardinal Other preferred burial sites were on higher direction (Halevi, 2007), Christian ‘orientation’ ground or providing a panoramic view. The to the east, facing the rising sun, resurrection visibility of the sites to passers- by and the and the Last Judgement, was less strict. Graves frequency with which they were visited were could be aligned to church walls or ‘point’ to deemed social assets. The Kerameikos of something important, even beyond the church- Athens, with its numerous funerary sculptures yard (Boissavit- Camus and Zadora- Rio, 1996; Cemeteries and urban form 121 A B 1 da da 1 ab a ab ab ac M O S E L ea M O S E L 1 a ac 240 m 240 m Altbach Altbach Augusta Treverorum (Trier), Trier (Electorate of Trier), Holy Roman Roman Empire, c. 4th century AD Empire, c. 14th century AD Main burial grounds with Main churches or monasteries 1 zones of densication and ecclesiastical pricincts a Forum a Main Market Square High Cathedral of St Peter and ab Basilica and Palace District ab Church of Our Lady in Trier ca Imperial Roman Baths ca Aula Palatina (Palace) 1 a a d N d N St Maximin (Monastery) St Maximin’s Abbey ea ea Circus and Theatre ea St Matthias’ Abbey 0 300 600m 0 300 600m Figure 1. (A) Late Antique Trier (Augusta Treverorum) and the location of the main burial grounds in front of the main gates at the ends of the intra- and inter- urban main thoroughfares (decumanus and cardo); (B) Trier as the seat of a prince- bishop in the late- medieval period. Source: Deutscher Historischer Städteatlas (2006) and Maps of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier (GDKE) (adapted by the author). Rahtz, 1978, pp. 1–3; Schmitz- Esser, 2016, Early Christianity pp. 57–63). Graveyard and religious building, usually the parish church, formed one unit: In the fourth century, Trier was one of the larg- they constituted ‘morphotopes, or the small- est cities in the Roman Empire and a residence est building group of distinctive period mix- of the western Roman Emperor (Figure 1A). ture or period dominance’ (Whitehand, 2009, This metropolis and its minor urban satellites, p. 9). Such units within a Christian town are such as Belginum (Figure 2) are archaeologi- very different from arrangements associated cal documents of the continuity and change with Muslim or Jewish building traditions. In from Celtic (Belgae and Treveri) to Roman Christianity, older burial grounds – in contrast and Romanized or early- Christian funeral to the Muslim custom – continued to be re- practices. All these burial sites form a striking used, which resulted in burial sedimentation contrast to the planned (or rectified) rectangu- and archaeological strata. Deceased Romans lar grid of Greek- Hellenistic or Gallo-Roman were granted eternal rest as long as the site urban forms. This was no coincidence: the area was maintained. If not, much needed construc- of the living remained strictly separated from tion material was taken from the burial sites as the dead. Only commemoration could bridge ‘spoliae’ (repurposed parts) to build the city of this ‘limes’ by bringing offerings to the burial the living. place outside the city or by placing them on 122 Cemeteries and urban form Figure 2.