Intimate places for the dead

Old Austrian towns have a beautiful way of creating intimate garden cemeteries, usually with a central well or tap and watering cans, and well tended family plots, one small space often shared by many.

At Hallstatt, land is at a premium as the rock cliffs come down straight to the lakes edge, and the houses are virtually on top of one another on the small stretches of land available. So in the cemetery, space is limited. To accommodate this, they have developed the practice of burying the dead, and after about 15 years, they dig them up, clean and bleach the bones, and place them in a small crypt. More recently they took to painting the skulls. The last person was added in the early 90's and people can still request to be placed here still, though cremation has mostly alleviated the problem of space. This place, though a bit eerie, was not at all gruesome, and had a very intimate feel to it, and seemed to be a place where people could remember those that had passed away in a loving way. The patterns painted on the skulls were representative of  a persons attributes and values.

This rich Baron had a chapel built for his elaborate contributions, and requested in his will that he be lifted up every 50 years and paraded around the town and his castle across the lack

In the old town in Salzburg, St Peters church has a small cemetery, where many of the graves are decorated with metal plaques with beautiful ornamentation of saints, madonna's  and angels. The graves are again shared by many, and the plants and gardens well tended. Here we saw the burial place Haydn, and Mozart's sister.