Garden of Memories - the first slovak natural cemetery
Garden of Memories is the first slovak natural cemetery which works with respect towards people and nature as well. It is the green burial alternative where ashes or bodies of deceased can be placed to the flower beds or meadow. We use eco-friendly, asthetical and handmade funeral products with low ecological footprint. Farewells take place under the treetops and follow the wishes of bereaved families. We support biodivesity of the cemetery by nectarivorous plants, beekiping or manual mowing.
National
Slovakia
Zvolen, Košice and rest of the country as well
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
2022-09-22
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): CEEV ZIVICA Type of organisation: NGO First name of representative: Andrea Last name of representative: Uherková Gender: Female Nationality: Slovakia Function: project manager Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Račianska 78 Town: Bratislava Postal code: 83102 Country: Slovakia Direct Tel:+421 905 459 319 E-mail:uherkova@zivica.sk Website:https://zivica.sk/about/
The Garden of Memories is the first slovak natural burial ground, situated in the municipal cemetery in Zvolen. It was established in 2017 thanks to the cooperation with municipality and local community - volunteers, NGO´s and university students.
Green burials are designed to have a minimal environmental impact and protect natural resources. We started to bury the human ashes to the roots of the trees and to the flower beds directly or in ecological urns. The most ecological type of burial is a burial of an uncremated body in a simple shroud or wooden coffin and we introuduced this option to public in September 2022. In January 2023, the first natural burial in bio-degradable coffin took place here. Currently, this is the most environmentaly friendly type of burial in Slovakia and it is offered only in the Garden of Memories.
Our natural cemetery is a garden more than a cemetery, as there are no gravestones, just simple stone markers on the ground. We planted edible shrubs, nectarous plants and grases, we don't use any harmful chemicals and whole garden is only manually mown. Visitors are not allowed to bring any decoration, artificial flowers or candles. This way, our cemetery produce only compostable waste.
Everything we use, such as the urns or beeswax candles are hand made by Slovak craftsmen, as aesthetics are also very valuable part of the project.
Natural funerals also offer a new approach to last farewells, which are unique and personal, held under the trees and following the wishes of the family and friends of the deceased.
The Garden of Memories is a part of project Funebra, as the first natural burial movement initiative in Slovakia (part of an NGO ZIVICA). We also co-create meaningful funerals in other places, e.g. in nature, cafés, on a boat etc. We help other cities establish their own natural cemeteries and we encourage a healthy relationship with death through public talks and workshops.
natural burials
meaningful funerals
ecology
community
cemetery
We believe that sustainability should be a part of life, as well as death and funerals. In everything we do, we honor our ecological values - we create cemeteries respecting both people and nature.
Objective 1: To increase the biodiversity of cemetery and improve the local microclimate
The Garden of Memories was established as a garden in a regular cemetery without a damage of the original environment. Nature is respected and honoured here. Thanks to the volunteers we planted various kinds of flowers, bushes and trees and we installed two beehives in the corner of the garden. Few birdhouses were installed into the crowns of trees above the ceremonial space.
Objective 2: To become a zero-waste cemetery
● To produce no waste by visitors and by management of the place
No plastic and artificial decorations are allowed here, visitors can bring only fresh flowers, which are composted later. The leftovers of packaging-free from beeswax candles are turned into new ones.
Objective 3: To be a cemetery with natural management
The garden is managed with respect for biodiversity. Pesticides or insecticides are forbidden and we mow the garden only with a scythe.
Objective 4: To use biodegradable and aesthetically valuable funeral products
The burial spots are without concrete lining, so ashes and ecological urns can decompose quite easily and become part of the nature again.
Biodegradable urns are handmade either by Slovak craftsmen we cooperate with, or they are made by the bereaved family and friends themselves. Coffins are wooden, bio-degradable with no artificial accessories.
The Garden of Memories also has its ceremonial space with a stone art piece with a water surface for the candles. Wooden benches are made by regional craftsmen, as well as the stone piece. The graves are marked only by small slovak stones with engraved names of people buried here.
Objective 1 - To create cemetery as a garden or a park
Some people tend to avoid the cemeteries in Slovakia, as a result of their architecture and appearance. We have created nature-based burial space looking more like a park. Locals, mostly elderly people or parents with their children are used to go to the Garden of Memories for their walks. The local atmosphere may evoke positive feelings and help us see the death as a part of the life cycle. Moreover, beauty can have a transformative potential in the process of grieving.
Objective 2: To use bio-degradable funeral products with high aesthetic value
One of the biggest issues in modern funeral services is very poor aesthetic value of funeral products. Our bio-degradable urns are made by artists and craftsmen from paper-mâché and clay. We also encourage people to draw and write on the urns or create one by themselves, because we see creative work as healing in the grieving process. Coffins are very simple, wooden and minimalistic, without chemicals and plastic decorations. Beeswax candles made by the local beekeepers also have high aesthetic value, as they are very minimalistic, without any packaging. Moreover, they have a really nice smell and are recyclable.
We offer our products also through our website and in funeral services in Zvolen. We would like to inspire other craftsmen to focus on funeral products and try to increase their aesthetic value also in the conventional funeral services, not only in the natural burial movement.
Objective3: To create ecologically, ethically, economically and aesthetically valuable cemetery
We see the connection between ecological, ethical, economical and aesthetical principles, as all of them are significant parts of the natural burial movement. That is why we honour them all. We recognize beauty as a very important part of funerals and cemeteries and we feel inspired by it.
Objective 1: To make funerals economically available
Natural cemeteries, including the Garden of Memories, are interesting for people also from the economical perspective. They don't need to buy an expensive gravestone since the graves are marked only with a small plaque. They also don't have to worry about canceling the cemetery, because the ashes are already part of local environment. After the funeral, bereaved don't need to take care of the burial spot, as nature takes care of it itself. People don't feel the need to decorate the graves and this is a money saving factor too.
Objective 2: To create and use cemetery as a public space
Our bereaved community also meet in the Garden of Memories during our public ceremonies - The Day of Hope - remembering deceased children (in August) and at The Day of the Dead (in November). Visitors are welcomed in the garden during the whole year, for a walk or contemplation.
Natural burial grounds like ours can inspire other cities to make economically accessible cemeteries respecting the nature, and design them as green public spaces also suitable for cultural events during the whole year.
Objective 3: To make funerals personalized and authentic
Current funeral services lack a personal approach and don't respond to needs and wishes of the bereaved people. We offer an alternative for those who want to take their own path in creating a funeral for a loved one. We encourage the family to participate in planning and preparations of the ceremony. We noticed that giving the bereaved family an option to make funerals more personal makes it a more meaningful experience for them. We give people opportunities to create their own ecological urns or coffins, to decorate the ceremonial space and also to bring their favorite food and drinks or music. We motivate the bereaved to join the preparation process and the funeral itself as much as they want to.
INVOLVEMENT
In the beginning (2017), we were working with the local focus group of adults, seniors and university students. They helped us specify the people's needs and how the natural cemetery should look like and operate. We also organized a public discussion in order to inform the public about the process of establishing a natural cemetery in Zvolen.
So to a large extent, the Garden of Memories is also a voluntary project, as a lots of volunteers, university students and NGO´s members are included. They helped us with planting at the very begining and they still participate in taking care of the garden through the year.
Gardening might be also very therapeutical in a grieving process so we enable the bereaved families to be part of caring for our cemetery. This way we
also create a possibility for contact with other bereaved people with similiar experience.
Our bereaved community also meets at The Day of Hope - remembrance day for deceased children and at The Day of the Dead.
BENEFITS
We have 2 main target groups - bereaved people and general public and they each can benefit from our work in different way.
We motivate the bereaved to join the preparation process and the funeral itself as much as they want to. We noticed that giving the bereaved family an option to make funerals more personal makes it a more meaningful and therapeutic experience for them.
Public - visitors - can come and relax or contemplate in the Garden of Memories throughout the whole year.
Natural burial grounds like ours can inspire other cities to make economically accessible cemeteries connected with nature, and design them as green public spaces which can be used for visits, relaxation or cultural events during the year.
Firstly, we were cooperating with the managers of the first Czech natural cemetery - the Wood of Memories in Prague. Their experience, know-how and best practice were very useful for us, so that we didn't need to invent everything from zero. One member of this czech ecofuneral group - Monika Suchanska - has become also the co-founder of the Garden of Memories, as she has moved to Slovakia, and she is now a manager of our project.
In Zvolen, where cemetery has been going to be situated, we started our debate with the town representatives and their lawyers in order to set up our cooperation and divide competencies. This collaboration continues to this day and time-to-time we meet, discuss the development of the natural cemetery and we also try to solve current problems together. We find this very important, as the municipality is the partner of the project and can secure the necessary care of the cemetery.
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS
We cooperated with two landscape architects, one of them, Dusan Danis, works for Technical University in Zvolen. Thanks to this fact, his students were helping us with the practical planting and gardening at the beginning. The main landscape architect, Denisa Halajova, is very experienced in natural gardens with extensive management, which is very useful in our work.
CRAFTSMEN
As we invited craftsmen and artiststo our project, the communication with landscape architects was needed. They discussed together mainly about the type of mobiliari, as wooden benches within the designed space.
Other crafsmen were creating the bio-degradable urns for us. In this filed we cooperated also with the czech natural burial movement and applied the best practice which they already had to our work.
LAWYERS
One of the most important, as well as most difficult part for us was to set up a cooperation contract between the municipality and our organisation. This was a job of the lawyers from the both players.
ECO_FUNERAL LADIES FROM ABROAD
As it was already mentioned, we have cooperated with the natural burial movement from Czech Republic. In that time, this movement was lead by 3 ladies with lots of skills and practice from their natural cemetery based in Praque. We participated in their eco-funeral workshops and discussed about possibilities of natural burial movement in Slovakia. We are still in contact nowadays and inspire each other. For example, now we in Slovakia are the first ones who have enabled the eco-funerals of non-cremated bodies so we can share the best practice with them, as they are planning to do the same step this year.
RECONNECTING WITH NATURE
Natural burial movement itself is about reconnecting with nature. The word 'natural' has two meanings - natural as ecologically friendly type of burial and natural as something deeply rooted in us, more familiar and in line with our nature.
We often say that this movement is about returning back to our roots. In fact, we are doing something very ancient and simple, funerals with low impact to the environment, which used to be normal and only possible ones in the past.
Funerals used to be more personalized as well, as the communities were smaller and more tightly knit and they did the whole preparations by themselves.
In 5 years of existence, we had 100 funerals under the crowns of the trees in the Garden of Memories. These funerals left minimal ecological footprint and produced almost no waste. Our funeral products comes only from Slovakia or Czech Republic. Stone grave markers are made from local stone and engraved by local artists.
We have planted hundreds of nectarous plants and edible bushes, which are beneficial for the bees and birds. Thanks to the natural management, the insect is protected by gentle manual grass cutting or de-weeding.
We can see the big impact on other municipalities as well. They reach us to help them with setting up their own natural cemeteries. Till today, we have created more than 5 projects for new natural burial grounds all around the country and we opned one new cemetery - the Wood of Memories in Košice.
RESPECT FOR NATURE
Current conventional cemeteries and funeral services in Slovakia are not sustainable. Products that are used - including urns, coffins, gravestones, as well as artificial decoration, are not biodegradable and are imported from across the globe. The ecological footprint of Slovak cemeteries rises mainly during The Day of the Dead. During a few days in the end of October and beginning of November people bring tons of plastic flowers and artificial or LED candles to the graves each year .
Conventional cemeteries can contribute to climate change that begins usually on a local, microclimate scale. Heavy and big gravestones, often in dark colors raise the temperature and heat the sites mainly during sunny days. Water regime is disrupted, as the water cannot penetrate into the soil directly and gathers only in a few spots. Lack of vegetation contributes to the microclimate changes as well.
Natural cemeteries, like the Garden of Memories are managed with very strict emphasis on ecology and circularity as they are not producing waste at all. It is not allowed to bring any decoration here, except for fresh flowers. People can light only floating and packaging free beeswax candles, which can be lit on the water. These candles are made by local beekeepers with a family business. As we are trying to do zero-waste managing, the residue of the candles are gathered and reused for the new ones.
RESPECT FOR PEOPLE
Natural burial movement also reacts to the impersonal and uniformal funeral ceremonies with no will for making them more individual, with the respect to the wishes of bereaved or deceased ones.
In the Garden of Memories we honor the principle of the wishes of the family, so we plan a funeral in cooperation with them in a way they want to. We believe that bereaved people know what works best or them so we are trying to support them to follow their needs.
We always try to focus on the unique context - whether it's creating funerals, new cemeteries or workshops. We listen to the needs of those on the other side
and we remain flexible. Natural burial movement is also inclusive for different religions or life philosophies. In everything we do, we honour our ecological values - we create cemeteries respecting people as well as the nature. You won't find classical gravestones here - in the Garden of Memories people are buried in flower beds. Cut grass serves as mulch for the flower beds, flower gifts are turned to compost and burned out candles are returned to the maker. We also support biodiversity by beekeeping. In the time of a climate crisis we sense the need to create cemeteries which will improve cities' resilience and biodiversity and will serve as a quality urban green space.
We believe that bereaved families know the best how the funeral for their deceased should look like. At first, we explain their options and we don't expect any immediate decisions. We create a safe environment for creating the funeral and we don't rush the process. Making rational decisions in a time of grief might be very difficult. We motivate the bereaved to join the preparation process and the funeral itself as much as they want to.
Funebra's team consists of two women - Monika Suchánska and Andrea Uherková. Andrea is the caretaker of The Garden of Memories in Zvolen and a funeral celebrant. Monika is the project manager and she takes care of The Wood of Memories in Košice, where she also works as a funeral celebrant.
During the year we work also on new cemeteries with different cities, we are available for bereaved people outside our cemeteries, we do workshops, talks or other educational activities. We also consult with our artists and craftsmen who create our urns and other products in order to improve their aesthetic and ecological value.
Our project Funebra and the organization Zivica is trying to spread the natural burial movement and its principles in Slovakia, to other places and also among the general public, so the Garden of the Memories is just one of the stepping stones and examples of how it can work.
In 2021 we set up second natural cemetery - the Wood of Memories in Košice.
The principles we honour in the Garden of Memories can be replaicated at any other places and cemeteries.
We already cooperate with other municipalities, mainly in the western part of Slovakia in order to help them set up natural cemeteries. We have an authorized landscape architect in our team, so we can provide project documentation as a service according to their preferences.
Our offer for the municipalities includes project documentation for:
● new natural cemetery;
● revitalisation of an existing cemetery;
● combined cemetery - mainstream and natural burial spots in one cemetery with environmentally friendly management.
As a service for the public we offer:
- on-line or phone consultations regarding funerals;
- on-line or phone planning of a funeral;
- funeral ceremony at other places than our cemeteries;
- we can be celebrants also at other places.
Our project is dealing with some of the Global Issues (according to the United Nations):
CLIMATE CHANGE
The Garden of Memories contributes thanks to its natural habitat and way of management to healthy environment and has a positive impact on local microclimate. The area also maintains natural water management.
POPULATION
The global population is constantly rising and together with the population growth, there will be a higher demand for new cemeteries. The Garden of Memories shows how we can cooperate with nature to create new burial grounds without the necessity of destroying natural sites.
AGEING
The number of elderly people has increased substantially in recent years in most countries and regions, and it will rise in the coming decades. Municipalities will have to create more space for cemeteries. Our natural cemetery is an example of how to easily use existing natural sites as burial grounds.
HEALTH
As we mentioned, our natural cemetery can have a positive effect mainly on the mental health of its visitors. It was already proved by the scientists that nature and greenery especially, can improve our health just by spending some time in a natural environment. Moreover, personal and authentic funeral ceremonies under the trees have healing potential for the bereaved people.
WATER
There are a lot of problems worldwide associated with inadequate water supply or water pollution. Today it is not such a big issue in Slovakia, but it can be in the future. Natural cemeteries like the Garden of Memories can ensure natural water management on the site. As we use eco-friendly products and produce no waste, no chemicals are released to the ground. Water cycle can work naturally here.
