Skogskyrkogården

Designed by Gunnar Asplund, one of the big names of 20th-century Swedish architecture, this beautiful graveyard is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the final resting place of actress Greta Garbo. A wonderfully peaceful combination of great architecture and shady woodlands, there’s nothing gloomy about this extraordinary resting place. In fact, an hour or so spent walking here is bound to lift the spirits.

Even though it is included on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites (one of three such sites in or near Stockholm), Skogskyrkogården is not at the top of many visitors’ lists. Perhaps that is because it sits outside of the center of the city, though visiting requires only a short train ride of about 15 minutes. Or it may be the fact that it is a cemetery that deters some sightseers. Those who make the trek, however, will find a bucolic, wooded cemetery with graves in the shadow of towering pines. The cemetery was designed by Sweden‘s leading modernist architect, Gunnar Asplund, and Sigurd Lewerentz from 1917 to 1920, when both men were starting their careers. The two also designed five chapels. You can find the grave of one of Sweden’s most famous figures, Greta Garbo, near the Woodland Chapel, while the chapels of Faith, Hope, and the Holy Cross form one group that was constructed from 1937 to 1940 and represent a high point of Swedish modernism. While much of the charm of the cemetery is its feeling of being an untended woodland, the architects did opt for occasional moments of drama in the design of the landscape, like the Seven Springs Way, a long allée that leads to the hilltop meditation grove.

As soon as I heard that a cemetery was one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites in Stockholm – I had to go visit. Really? A cemetery as a UNESCO World Heritage site – what in the world could make it so special? As soon as I walked into the cemetery and passed the Meditation Grove I realized right away why this cemetery was so special. The grave sites were situated among a forest of tall evergreens – a beautiful way to highlight life, death, and nature. It really was a different design from anything I’ve seen before. I felt as though I was hiking through a forest and had come across a cemetery – it was harmonious. This was the exact goal of Skogskyrkogården when it was created in the early 1900s – to blend nature and architecture into a seamless whole. I spent a couple of hours in the cemetery simply taking it all in, going inside chapels, sitting on benches, and enjoying the landscaping and environment immensely. A cemetery may be an unusual attraction, but I would suggest this UNESCO site to anyone as a way to see the natural Stockholm.