Star Garden & Burial Forest Wervik Park Cemetery

Ars Moriendi Ars Vivendi

Wervik’s park cemetery is striking back on a path of innovation and aims to be a lasting example of the ‘Art of Burial’ alongside the ‘Art of Dying’ and the ‘Art of Living’.

Wervik’s park cemetery was finished in the year 2001. Meanwhile, 23 years later, we see that the funerary world is also evolving. Additional forms of burial are gradually taking root in cemeteries, such as the burial of star children in a ‘star garden’ and the burial of biodegradable urns in a ‘burial forest’.

A design was commissioned by the City of Wervik to integrate these two forms of burial in Wervik’s park cemetery. In doing so, the city council wants to tie in with evolutionary developments within the funerary world.

An important starting point during the design phase was to preserve the unique character of the park cemetery and, once the ‘star garden’ and the ‘burial wood’ have been realised, to give the impression that everything has always been like this from the beginning.

Star garden

A star garden offers the opportunity to commemorate star children, children who died during the died during pregnancy.

There is a symbolic entrance gate at the entrance to the star garden. Once the visitor walks past this gate, he or she has the sensation of entering a special place. One column bears the inscription STERRETJESTUIN – STAR GARDEN. I wrote the text for the other column in the form of a comforting Haiku:

IK BEN NIET ALLEEN

TUSSEN BLOESEMS EN VLINDERS

FONKELENDE STER

I AM NOT ALONE

AMONG BLOSSOMS AND BUTTERFLIES

TWINKLING STAR

Once past this gate, visitors notice a stone collection monument in which there are numerous river boulders in different colours. Parents, brothers and sisters, can take a stone and place it on the grave monument. A tangible reminder of their star child.

This interaction encourages involvement in remembering the star child. The stones not only contribute to the uniqueness of the monument, but also collectively form a symbolic path highlighting the connection. In doing so, the mourning process acquires comfort and meaning and symbolises the unity of life and death or human existence.

For centuries, cultures worldwide have piled stones to commemorate dearly departed people. This is how graves or memorial sites in the form of cairns are created. Such places keep evolving over time into spiritual places for remembrance, prayer, awareness and meditation. A common name for these graves or memorials in the form of a cairn is ‘Cairn’, derived from the Scottish word ‘Carn’.

The innovative concept for the star garden at Wervik park cemetery was inspired by this age-old tradition and unfolded into an interactive form of commemoration.

To the left and right of the centrally placed star monuments, among the already existing beech hedges, parents can also bury their star child if they wish. Children will also be buried in this section of the park cemetery. These memorial stones can also be stacked on these children’s graves.

Burial forest

A burial forest offers the possibility of a more natural way of burial. Biodegradable urns can be buried in the wooded area at the back of the park cemetery.

There is also a symbolic entrance gate at the entrance to the burial forest. Once the visitor walks past this gate, he or she also experiences the sensation of entering a special place. One column bears the inscription BEGRAAFBOS – BURIAL FOREST. I wrote the text for the other column in the form of a comforting Haiku:

EEN MET DE NATUUR

TUSSEN BOMEN EN VOGELS

VLIEGENDE ENGEL

ONE WITH NATURE

AMONG TREES AND BIRDS

FLYING ANGEL

Once past this gate, visitors enter a grove of multi-trunk Himalayan birch, identical to the birches that have been growing for 23 years at the end of two other symbolic axes in the park cemetery. A bench closes the axis facing the star garden.

In the adjacent wooded area, there is a memorial on which the names can be placed of the deceased whose ashes are buried in the forest. During the summer months, a grass path through the forest will be mown frequently to ensure accessibility.

These photorealistic render images may not be used or distributed without permission from design agency Andy Malengier BV