Welcome to Krigskirkegården!
(“The War Cemetery”)
Krigskirkegården
represents a very special chapter in Fredrikstad's burial ground history. Here commanding
officers, city dwellers and foreign war victims rest side by side. Krigskirkegården
provides an exciting insight into how people and society have remembered their
dead at different times over the years.
History
The cemetery was established
as the garrison cemetery in 1789. The existing garrison cemetery in Vaterland
(closer to the garrison) had no longer space for new graves due to epidemics.
The name Krigskirkegården followed from the cemetery in Vaterland.
Krigskirkegården was, already
after a few months, opened for civilian burials as well. The military
"upper class" preferred to have their family members buried here instead
of in the cemetery surrounding the church, which was inside the Fortified
Town. Very soon Krigskirkegården also
became the burial ground for civilians from the urban fields outside the
Fortified Town.
During the Napoleonic Wars,
Norway experienced naval blockades, failing crops and famine, resulting in high
mortality. In addition, in the years 1808 and 1809 there was an epidemic among
the soldiers in the garrison. 84 soldiers died each month in December 1808 and
January 1809. At most 10 funerals were held on one day at Krigskirkegården. A
total of 336 soldiers and civilians were buried in Fredrikstad in 1808, and in
1809 a total of 597!
In 1809 the cemetery had to be
extended to the west. This part of Krigskirkegården today houses the war graves
from World War I and II, and is otherwise overgrown.
Krigskirkegården is still
available for new graves, but there have been few burials here since the 1960s.
The war memorials
On May 31st 1916 a
huge naval battle, the Battle of Jutland, was fought between German and British
warships off the west coast of Denmark. Of the nearly 9,000 dead, the bodies of
18 British and 11 German naval personnel had drifted ashore in the Hvaler
archipelago. They were buried side by side within their two rectangular burial
sites. In 1962, the German graves were moved to the German common memorial
ground at Alfaset in Oslo, but the original memorial remained here, along with
the British memorial and graves.
The most striking feature here
is the burial ground for British war victims in Norwegian waters from World War
I, with the granite column "The Cross of Sacrifice" and 64 graves. These
graves were moved from around Norway to Krigskirkegården in 1961. This burial
ground is owned and maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
See their information sign at the cemetery for further information.
Closest to the gate is the
common grave of two Russian soldiers from World War II. They had survived the
German captivity on Rauøy together with 377 other Russian prisoners of war, but
died in May 1945 - right after the declaration of peace - and got their common
burial ground here.
The development of burial sites
in Fredrikstad
1567 Fredrikstad
was founded.
Graveyard inside the town around the church and, until 1779, under the church
floor for the most affluent.
In use until 1832.
Circa 1660 Cemetery for the poor inside
the town by the hospital/poorhouse until the 1740s.
1663 Fredrikstad became a garrison and
the fortified town.
Garrison cemetery on Isegran until 1741
1741 New
garrison and poor people’s cemetery at Vaterland, «Christi Kirkegaard»,
referred to as the "War Cemetery" (Krigskirkegården).
Discontinued 1789
1788-89 Mass
graves on Øra towards the Haborn hill
1789 The
present Krigskirkegården established as garrison cemetery.
A few months later opened for the burial of civilians.
1809 Krigskirkegården
expanded to the west with its own department for the poor
1832 Østre
(East) Fredrikstad burial ground built, in accordance with state order from 1805
prohibiting burials inside cities.
1834 and 1853 Cholera Cemetery just outside the moat
1877 Vestre
(West) Fredrikstad burial ground established