Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: begraafplaats

The oldest part of the church of Saint-Philbert de la Plisse date back to the 11th century, when William the Conqueror donated the church to the monks of the Abbaye-aux-Hommes in Caen. The church was rebuilt and enlarged in the following centuries, but remained under the patronage of the monks of Saint-Etienne. It was not until the mid-18th century that the abbey came into the possession of the municipalities of Saint-Philbert-sur-Orne and Les Îles Bardel. The monastery church became a parish church in 1906. In 1943, the entire complex, consisting of the church, the cemetery and the surrounding area, was listed as a historic monument.

At the end of October 1914, World War I stalled in Flanders Fields. After the first battle of Ypres (October-November 1914), trenches were dug in a wide arc around the city of Ypres. The second battle followed the first gas attack (April 1915). The front line shrank into the “Little Ypres Salient” at 3.5 to 4.5 km away from the city centre. The front started moving again on 7 June 1917. British troops broke open the Ieperboog (Ypres Salient) at the cost of huge losses during the third battle of Ypres (July-November 1917). However the German spring offensive of 1918 pushed the Ypres Salient back towards Ypres. The German troops were forced to give up the Ieperboog at the end of September 1918, due to exhaustion and the arrival of American troops. These battles almost completely destroyed the city of Ypres, while thousands of citizens and over hundreds of thousands soldiers from around the world lost their lives. More than 150 military cemeteries were built and monuments erected in and around the city in the 1920’s. Cemeteries, monuments, trenches, mine craters and museums nowadays still remind us of the futility of war.

A klokkenstoel (bell tower/belfry) as a separate structure probably owes its origin to the fact that certain areas in Friesland were too poor or the communities too small, to build a church. Sometimes a church was built without a tower and the bell was placed in a separate bell tower. It also happened that when a church building or church tower had fallen into ruin, a bell tower was built. Usually, the bell tower is located in a village or hamlet. Almost all freestanding bell towers can be found in the province of Friesland and therefore the bell tower can be called a typical Frisian construction. Brongerga is such a hamlet (nearby Oranjewoud and Heerenveen). In 1315 it already had a little church and a drawing from 1722 shows that there was still a church, but it must have been demolished shortly afterwards. Nowadays, only the belfry remains in the churchyard, where an old tombstone mentions the year 1711. The bell tower contains a very old bell from the 13th century, which came from a belfry in another Frisian village. The current bell tower was renovated in 2006.

The protestant Sint-Agathakerk - before the refomation dedicated to St. Agatha - is dating back to the year of 1090. The church was originally built as a Romanesque church and was later rebuilt in a Gothic style. The detached tower, built around 1140 as a Romanesque defence tower, of which the spire was replaced in 1888 by a tented roof, has walls more than one meter thick, tuff on the outside and bricks on the inside. The tower has one clock from the 14th century; most probably the oldest clock in the Netherlands (another one is from 1949). In the 14th century the church was lengthened with a choir and two Gothic entrances were added to the nave. Most of the building is of tuff, but the Gothic former northern entrance is of brick. The shape of the choir changed in 1599, when the apse was replaced by the current east wall. In 1717 bigger windows were added to the nave and the east wall. The Sint-Agathakerk is listed as a national monument and is rated with a very high historical value.

The village of Niehove dates back to before our era. Initially it was called Suxwort (Zuidwierde); around the year of 1200 it got its current name. Niehove is a beautiful example of a wierde village: a wierde is a man made elevation that served as a location for villages and as a refuge during rising water. Under the name Suxwort the village was for centuries the capital of Humsterland, which at that time - when the sea came much further inland - was a real island. Niehove remained largely unchanged through the centuries. The village resembles a kind of spider’s web on its round wierde . The little red brick houses are located in two circles around the church, with their backs turned to the fields. The church of Niehove (couldn’t find a ‘real’ name) is located on the top of the wierde . The Roman-Gothic church was built around the year of 1230, on the spot where a little wooden church has stood. Until the 16th century it was the only stone building in the village. It was not until the 18th century that the church was furnished with benches. Before then, churchgoers had to stand: men at the south side and women at the north side. For a long time, the Niehove churchyard was separated from the street by a circular canal, which was to force ghosts to remain at the churchyard and prevent them from venturing out into the village. Today the church has an interesting visitor centre with information about the village and Humsterland. It is also used for events and weddings.

Oudeschans is the smallest fortress-village of the Netherlands. The fortress itself was built in 1593 ad the fortification was used for military purposes until 1814. The sconce changed into a common rural village and much of the military past disappeared. Until 1972, when a reconstruction of the fortress started. As a result the walls, moats and bastion are visible again. Almost twenty years later the fortification became a state protected village area. Oudeschans had and has four so called bastions: a pentagonal masonry or earthen extension of a defensive wall or embankment. On one of the bastions lies a cemetery, called the Doodenbastion (“Death Bastion”). It is situated on a bastion because the fortress itself was located in a marshy area, which is not very suitable for a cemetery. The cemetery has been put into use shortly after the construction of the fortress. The cemetery has very old tombstones and tombs from our time.

The Petersfriedhof (St. Peter's Cemetery) is a cemetery that looks more like a ‘park’. This oldest Christian cemetery in Salzburg is a quiet green oasis in the busy historical centre of the city. The cemetery is located at the foot of the Festungsberg . Petersfriedhof is probably of the same age as the St. Peter’s Abbey, which dates from the year 696. The cemetery is surrounded on three sides by arcades and there are ancient graves of monks and inhabitants of Salzburg. Originally, this cemetery was only intended for residents of the monastery. Later, civilians were also buried in this atmospheric cemetery. The oldest surviving tombstone of the cemetery is that of abbot Dietmar, who died in 1288. The cemetery was closed in 1878 and the site decayed until in 1930 the monks of St. Peter's successfully urged for the admission of new burials. In the middle of the cemetery stands the gothic Margarethenkapelle (Margaret Chapel) from 1491 (PiP4). On the outside wall of this chapel there are many old marble tombstones.

The Cementerio Nuestra Senora del Carmen is located just outside Maimará, along Ruta 9 to Tilcara. Without any doubt it is the most remarkable and unusual cemetery of the Humahuaca Valley. The cemetery is situated around a hill top and offers vaults with curious architecture, picturesque tombs, a lot of crosses, indefinite sculptures and colourful dried and artificial flowers. From the slope of the cemetery one has a wonderful view towards the Paleta del Pintor with its wonderful colours ( www.ipernity.com/doc/294067/49367588 ).

Brecon Cathedral - or officially “Cathedral Church of St John the Evangelist” - started life in 1093 as the Benedictine Priory of St John the Evangelist, built by the Normans on the site of an earlier Celtic church. At the dissolution of the monasteries in 1537 it became Brecon's Parish Church. It became a cathedral only in 1923 on the establishment of the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon. Adjacent to the cathedral lies the graveyard in one of the most charming, serene and peaceful settings I have ever seen for a graveyard. Old tombstones and Celtic crosses are scattered throughout the yard sometimes overgrown with plants or moss in a park-like area and during my visit with huge fields of wild cyclamen.

In the early 18th century monks of the Order of the Recoletos arrived in this area. The order was disbanded in 1822. The garden of the convent was converted into the first public cemetery in Buenos Aires. The cemetery is built around the former convent and the Our Lady of Pilar church (Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Pilar), built in 1732. Recoleta Cemetery has a surface of 5.5 hectares and contains almost 4.700 vaults. The entrance to the cemetery is through neo-classical gates with tall Doric columns. The cemetery has many elaborate marble mausoleums, decorated with statues, in a wide variety of architectural styles. Materials used between 1880 and 1930 in the construction of tombs were imported from Paris and Milan. The entire cemetery is laid out in sections like city blocks, with wide tree-lined main walkways branching into sidewalks filled with mausoleums. Many notable people (presidents of Argentina, Nobel Prize winners, the founder of the Argentine Navy and a granddaughter of Napoleon), are buried on the Recoleta Cemetery. Perhaps the most well known of all is Eva Perón. Main picture: Recoleta Cemetery, seen from the top of Hotel Etoile. PiP1: one of the side ‘streets’ PiP2: plaque on the mausoleum of the Eva Peron mausoleum

Gamla Kyrkogården (Old Cemetery), located in the former medieval city of Kalmar, is dating back to the first half of the 13th century. It is the oldest Christian burial ground in Kalmar. At the square of the Old Town stood the Bykyrkan (Village Church) and in connection with it the cemetery was laid out. The Village Church was blown up during the 1670s, when the whole city of Kalmar was moved to it´s present place on Kvarnholmen. Gamla Kyrkogården kept in use till the 1860’s and remained at its original place, till the South Cemetery, close to Kalmar Castle, was ready Several old gravestones can still be seen in the cemetery, many with unusual motifs and forms. The place where the old church stood is marked with a memorial plaque as well as stones that show where the foundation stood. There are tombstones from the 17th and 18th centuries and standing gravestones from the 19th century. Several of these stones were locally made, using limestone from Öland. Memorial crosses of cast iron became common in the middle of the 19th century One of the most remarkable gravestones (see first PiP) shows a knight (Christopher Andersson Grip) and his wife; both seem to be beheaded. According to a plaque they died in 1588 and 1599.

Tombstone on the graveyard of the 'Mare de Déu de les Neus' church in the little village of Irgo.