Højen parish council plans lapidarium for old gravestones

Højen parish council wants to preserve some of more than 150 old gravestones beside Højen Church near Vejle by displaying them in a lapidarium, DR reports. The council says there is no longer room for more stones.

A lapidarium is a collection or display of stones, including gravestones removed from burial plots. Council chairman Marcus Kring says the stones should not simply be discarded. “It would be like erasing history,” he said.

The church does not own the stones and is not required to store them. Relatives can take them home, while others may be reused by stonemasons or crushed into gravel or used for coastal protection. Kring would prefer to preserve as many as possible and have the rest crushed so their inscriptions cannot be read. “There are names on them, and you shouldn’t be able to find them in coastal protection out by the North Sea,” he said.

Ribe Bishop Elof Westergaard, who also chairs the Association for Cemetery Culture, supports lapidariums as a way to preserve cemeteries as places of remembrance. He said views differ within the association, with some members concerned that moving a gravestone changes its original purpose.

At Højen cemetery, council member Lars Grauslund envisions arranging the stones in a square that visitors can walk around. The initial plan is to display 25 to 30 stones, while leaving room for more in the future.

Henriette Rensbro, a museum curator and church archaeologist at the National Museum, said lapidariums can have significant local historical value, even though they are not officially museums. Højen parish council recently held a public information meeting about its proposal and is continuing to develop the plans.