Cemetery of the Skull, Belgium

The Cemetery of the Skull is a graveyard within a large Belgian city. This cemetery is over 200 years old. Beautiful 200-year-old red beech trees. line the main pathways leading from the main entrance archway. These tall leafy trees cast dappled shade over some of the gravestones. Consequently, the diffuse nature of this light creates a paradise for lush verdant mosses and crisp lichens.

Emperor Joseph II decreed in the 18th Century that no one could be buried within the city, therefore this cemetery was initially set up in a 2-hectare site outside of the city. This cemetery was established as a result. Funerary heritage laws protect the Cemetery of the Skull. Additionally, any new internments from the region are now taken to a newer general cemetery. In the late 20th Century this historic site became protected, to preserve its unique and archaeologically interesting features. Over the decades many headstones and monuments have collapsed. The on-site lapidarium acts as a storage area for the remains of the fallen markers.

Of course, there are many beautiful gravestones in this cemetery. However, there is one that is of particular interest. The stone skull that sits in the shade of 200-year-old beech trees is over 150 years old. The gravestone marks the resting place of a merchant and his wife, and is a registered monument. The skull’s mouth is grotesquely agape in a centuries-long silent scream, resting on a pillow of crossed femur bones. Bright green moss covers the gravestone, accentuating the hollow eye sockets and the tortured grimace of the macabre Cemetery of the Skull.

Cemetery Of The Skull – “abandoned”, or not

This is one of the classic Belgium locations, and is more of a “dark tourism” than an “urbex” place as you can freely wander the cemetery until your heart is content. We visited the cemetery on one of my first trips to Belgium, on a summer afternoon that seems such a long time ago. I am not sure that I agree with classing this site as a “lost place; afterall, how can a maintained cemetery truly be called “lost”? In any event, the Cemetery Of The Skull is a wonderful, if dark, photography subject. Beautifully photogenic.