1912
The Stockholm City Council decides to allocate an area of land in the south of Stockholm as a cemetery. The area consists mainly of a gravel and sand ridge covered in coniferous forest, and eventually the cemetery will cover a little over 100 hectares.
1914
To find the designer of the new cemetery, an international architectural competition is announced. In brief terms, the task at hand is to design an area that preserves the original natural values, without taking anything away in terms of architecture or artistic expression. The area was to be given a dignified air, and it also had to be easy for the public to find their way around it.
1915
The competition is closed, and first prize is awarded to the young architects Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz for their “Tallum” proposal.
1920—1932
The wall. Photo: Gustav Stegfors
The wall around Skogskyrkogården is built by “emergency relief workers”; that is unemployed people from Stockholm. It is made of stone and is approximately 3.6 km long.
1940
The Woodland Crematorium. Photo: Susanne Hallmann.
The Woodland Crematorium and the three chapels, Tron (faith), Hoppet (hope) and Heliga korset (the holy cross), are completed after three years of construction. The buildings are inaugurated in June, and Asplund passes away three months later.
1961
Inauguration of the Remembrance Garden. It was designed by Lewerentz and is the first of it's kind in Stockholm.
1994
Skogskyrkogården is entered onto the UNESCO World Heritage List. The list consists of cultural and natural environments that are of outstanding universal value. This means that Skogskyrkogården must be cared for and preserved for future generations.
2014
The New Crematorium. Photo: Mikael Almehag
Inauguration of the New Crematorium. This crematorium was designed by the architect Johan Celsing and fulfils all environmental requirements in terms of purifying the flue gases.
