Forest Cemetery

There was a forest cemetery in Hrubá Skála as early as 1906. Smaller forest cemeteries were also founded in Bor near Česká Lípa in 1909 and in Mostek near Vrchlabí in 1910. Architect Dušan Jurkovič landscaped a small, fenced forest cemetery in Przyslop in 1916 and a larger in Lužná u Gorlic in 1917. In the 1920s and 1930s, thanks to the introduction of the ‘Lex Kvapil’ law and the secularization of burial rituals, the approach to cemeteries changed. The popular ‘Lebensreform’ and renaturalization movements, which accentuated the return of the body to nature, gained influence. The establishment of forest cemeteries thus became a new alternative for solving the insufficient burial capacities in Czechoslovak cities. A large forest cemetery was founded in the Budějovické Předměstí (Budějovice Suburbs) in Písek in the 1930s. In 1930, a large forest cemetery was founded by Tomáš Baťa in Zlín, landscaped by František Lýdie Gahura and opened in 1932.
 

The intention to found a forest cemetery in Hradec Králové was a reaction to these trends. The minutes of the council meeting stated: ‘Especially recently, cemeteries have become the subject of considerations by aestheticians and architects, and completely new aspects of modern cemetery management have emerged, which have been brilliantly expressed in several model cemeteries in Germany and, following their example, e.g. in the Sudeten Bor near Česká Lípa.’

The project of the forest cemetery was developed by Bohumil Kavka (1901–1977), the director of the Průhonice Park. The cemetery was divided into a section for brick tombs and graves, other graves (for children and adults) and urn graves, and each section was divided into two categories. A separate part was created for commission funerals. The cemetery also included the first urn grove for urns for which no urn graves had been established and for urns from graves for which fees had not been paid.
 

The forest cemetery in Hradec Králové was founded by the German city administration under the leadership of Josef Pilnáček and built in 1941–1942. The foundation of the cemetery, which initially included only five sections, was completed at the beginning of 1942 and cost the city over a quarter of a million Czechoslovak crowns. In the course of 1942, however, further costs were expected for the construction of a morgue with an autopsy room for 400,000 Czechoslovak crowns, a tomb for temporary storage of bodies, the installation of cemetery tables, the construction of wells, the establishment of a tree nursery, the reinforcement of the main road and driveway, and the planting of vegetation. The total costs were to climb to 1 million Czechoslovak crowns, of which 700,000 were to be covered by a loan. The operation of the cemetery was to be fiscally balanced. The city wanted to employ a gravedigger and a guard and counted on the revenues from 100 commission burials per year, 30 ‘better’ burials, and 20 places for urns with burials. 
 

The cemetery was operated under strict conditions. Several graves were to be purchased for the family burial ground to allow for a unified arrangement. The landscaping was to be adapted to the forest character of the cemetery, so only ‘evergreen plants’ were allowed, while garden flowers as well as artificial flowers were forbidden. Wreaths were to be removed by the bereaved within a week after the funeral; jardinieres or vases were banned. The form and arrangement of the graves was strictly prescribed. Various types of granite, syenite, diorite, marble, and hard sandstone were recommended, while monuments made of artificial stone, as well as ornaments made of plaster, porcelain, glass, or sheet metal, glazed photographs, or painting monuments were strictly prohibited. The cemetery stones could be a maximum of 150cm high from ground level and one grave could have an area of no more than 2 square meters. 
 

In 1946, artificial stone grave curbs were allowed in other municipal cemeteries, with the exception of the forest cemetery. In 1948, the cemetery conditions for the establishment and arrangement of graves moved from the forest cemetery in Zlín were updated. The pools and water distribution were not established until 1949, when the cemetery was probably expanded for the first time and modification and landscaping of new parts was carried out.
 

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