THE "NEW" CEMETERY FROM 1842
For centuries the cemetery of Versmold was situated directly next to ‘Petri-church’, the today's church square. However, since the early 19th century it was found that the already tightly dimensioned space was no longer sufficient. At times, the coffins had to be stacked on each other up to three layers in the ground. Due to the slowly increasing population and the connected increase in demand for burial places, the situation tightened even more. In the meantime, the gravediggers saw themselves even forced to dig out half rotted corpses in order to make room for ‘new arrivals’.
The congregation, however, remained passive and the secular communities did not agree in a solution. In general, an area east of the city seemed sensible. In contrast, citizens from Loxten would have liked to have a second burial ground north of town. But this did not work out. At the urging of the upper president of the province, the secular communities of Versmold, Oesterweg, Hesselteich and Peckeloh a nearly five-acre site situated at the east of the city was finally purchased. The centre of the space was marked by a wooden cross - since 1868 a marble cross can be found at this point. From this point, the main paths have been created in a cross shape. On the 19th of June in 1842 everything was ready and the cemetery was inaugurated.
In the following decades, the cemetery was extended several times until it reached its current size of approximately eight hectares. By the way, the current cemetery chapel was built quite late in 1955. Until then, it was still common to lay someone out at home. After the Second World War, however, the population exploded in the peripheral town due to refugees and displaced persons. Housing was scarce and also for hygienic reasons it seemed inadmissible to leave the dead for days in their homes. Henceforth, from then on the new cemetery chapel made remedy.
Shield No. 12
Berliner Straße 34
33775 Versmold
52.04049°N 8.16454°E