The Gravestone Museum
Tidaholm
In the old parish magazine, located right next to the wall of Kungslena Church, there are several old tombstones gathered from the cemetery. Today, it's no longer possible to determine their original locations, but under the roof of the magazine, they can be better preserved for the future.
Welcome to Kungslena Parish Magazine!
In Kungslena, there is an old parish magazine, right next to the church.
This magazine has now become a gravestone museum for cultural graves in Kungslena.
Until 1866, the cemetery was divided by the farms of the parish. At right angles to the church, the land was divided into narrow strips, similar to the fields of the farms. In these "family mounds," the farms buried their dead.
The boundary between each strip was marked by cut limestone boundary stones, so-called "difference gravestones." However, the increase in population started to fill up the available space. Instead, as in other parishes, they began burying people in a "line," which meant that people were buried in individual graves one after another as they passed away. This was free of charge.
But those who could afford it could still purchase a specific place for their family.
With time, the premium spots in the south and around the church were taken up entirely by family graves, often with gravel and enclosed by hedges or fences.
Particularly lavish is the grave of Colonel Wästfelt at the western entrance. Those who could not afford to buy a burial plot - most of the parish - ended up being buried in a common unmarked grave, which is nearly gone today.
Before the 20th century, there were relatively few gravestones. Instead, graves were marked with small mounds and evergreen shrubs, known as "grave mounds."
Before the industrial age took hold in the late 19th century, carving gravestones was a time-consuming and therefore expensive craft. For a long time, stone grave markers were reserved for the nobility and clergy. The cemetery has three walled graves with large slabs (known as "tumbor"), two of them dating back to the 17th century and containing the remains of the families of the foremen of the noble estate, Lena. The portrait gravestone of a daughter of Baron Stenbock is now located in the church vestibule.
As the region had plenty of easily quarried limestone, well-to-do farmers could also afford to commission gravestones, albeit in smaller sizes. These were often difference gravestones with the deceased's initials carved into them. Two of them still stand in their original locations in the area southwest of the church. Even in the 1870s, there were many difference gravestones and "tumbor" gravestones in the cemetery south and east of the church.