Grave Matters: Part 2

(Cont.)

More pictures from the the Norra begravningsplatsen cemetery in Solna, Sweden (Stockholm metropolitan area), november 2007.

Tallinn’s Got Talent: Big Chip on Shoulder

A really big chip of concrete on the shoulder of the Väike-Pääsukese road in downtown Tallinn, Estonia: the museum of the archeological excavations and medieval ruins of The Almshouse of St John the Baptist. Architects: Toivo Tammik, Sven Koppel, 2002.

Södertälje Law Courts

Corner of Storgatan and Jovisgatan, Södertälje, Sweden. Designed as a multipurpose city hall/civic center in 1963 by architect Åke Lindqvist. Since 1971 the home of Södertälje tingsrätt (law courts).

Grave Matters: Part 1

Snapshots of Section 14 at the Norra begravningsplatsen cemetery in Solna, Sweden (Stockholm metropolitan area), november 2007:

For some reason, the graves and monuments of the tiny, tiny Section 14 of this huge, enormous cemetery all seem to be erected by romani/gypsy families. In fact, the Section 14 constitutes its own cemetery-within-a-cemetery, so to speak, hidden away, as it were, “somewhere in the ”

Why this segregation? Muslims and jews creating their own cemeteries in a predominantly Christian nation could be expected. But segregating Christians from other Christians? Is it the romani community’s expressive wish to keep to themselves, to have a mini cemetery of their own? Or is it a case of racial/ethnic discrimination?

Or could segregating Section 14 have something to do with the fact (?) that the gold-and-polished-granite opulence of romani grave monuments clashes with the more modest tastes of non-romani Swedes? Is the segregating of romani graves in this particular case “merely” a consequence of the cemetery’s own rules for the design of headstones? Are there rules which only allow for opulent romani monuments at some distance from the more modest headstones of everyone else? Is it “just” a matter of—taste? Is it “only” a matter of—style? (Comments welcome from anyone who is more in the know than I am myself on the subject of the Section 14 at Norra begravningsplatsen.)