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Finding your last resting place soon can be as difficult as finding accommodation in Gothenburg.
Even though the city has dedicated around 500 hectares for cemeteries, the space is now starting to run out, something that GöteborgDirekt was the first to report on.
This is largely due to the Burial Rights Act, which has been in effect since 1963 and means that the land in which a person is buried can never be touched.
– It is often said that there is a shortage of housing or schools in Gothenburg. But very few think of cemeteries, says Katarina Evenseth, funeral director for Gothenburg cemeteries.
– All Gothenburg residents should have a place somewhere to be buried, and based on the expected death toll, new land will be needed sometime after 2030, says Katarina Evenseth, director of burials for Gothenburg cemeteries.
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You need 40 soccer fields
Gothenburg’s 36 cemeteries have a total capacity of approximately 130,000 graves.
The fact that more and more Swedes choose to be cremated has facilitated the growing shortage of places, but the problem persists.
READ MORE: More and more people choose not to have a funeral
Katarina Evenseth estimates that within the next 20 years, another 30 hectares of land will be needed to supply the demand for graves.
An area that corresponds to just over 40 soccer fields.
– The population is increasing in Gothenburg at the same time that one in five people buried in the city lives elsewhere. We have large cemeteries and a piece of land that is being expanded, but we will need about 30 hectares.
The demand for more land is directly related to the municipality’s own forecast for the expected death toll in 2030. If nothing happens, it means that Gothenburg will run out of empty cemeteries in ten years.
– Then we’ve filled up and there’s no vacant lot left. It is also for this reason that the city of Gothenburg has listened and taken our perspective.
Katarina Evenseth, Funeral Director of Gothenburg Cemeteries. Image: PER WAHLBERG
Looking for new solutions
Together with the Office of City Planning and the Office of Real Estate, the Church Administration has assembled a special task force that is tasked with finding and creating new cemeteries.
– The problems of the future have been understood. Now they are looking for a possible future location for a new large cemetery, says Katarina Evenseth.
READ MORE: Kviberg crematorium: Gothenburgers last stop
To further explain just how great the need is, he cites Västra kyrkogården as an example, a 45-hectare cemetery with almost 30,000 graves.
The fact that the focus is mainly on a new building rather than an expansion is due to the limited conditions that exist today.
– It depends a lot on the type of terrain with which it is concerned. The Kviberg cemetery has large parts located on a mountain where it cannot be buried today.
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By the turn of the year, the municipality is expected to present a new general plan, and in it also the vision of how to prevent the serious shortage that is coming.
A new cemetery may be the most desirable solution, but the administration is not alone in wanting 30 hectares of land in the city.
– The best land is the one that can be used immediately, but in a big city that prioritizes the construction of houses, it means many stakeholders.
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