Digging for Answers 7/12/12

                             

                                   Digging for Answers -- WHAT IS A MAUSOLEUM?
                                                                  by Randy Seaver

Welcome to the Digging for Answers column on the Graveyard Rabbit Online Journal.

This column will depend on your submission of questions about cemeteries, gravestones, burial practices, and other topics that concern a Graveyard Rabbit (other than where his next carrot is coming from!). So please send some questions to the editor, who will pass them along and keep the columnist hopping.

Question:  What is a mausoleum, what is their history, and how are they used today?

Answer:  A mausoleum is an above-ground free-standing enclosure or building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. Some mausoleums may be the tomb of only one person, or a larger building may have the final resting place of thousands of persons.

There are many more, of course.

Mausolus' tomb marked the beginning of a fundamental change in how people memorialized their dead. Starting in the Middle Ages, European royalty elected to go out in style in a big and ostentatious way by commissioning the finest sculptors to carve "gisants" (carved effigies) of the departed lying down on sarcophagi. A number of these royal crypts include ornate stone canopies and elaborate statuary. Some of the finest examples of these royal tombs can be seen in the Gothic cathedrals of France and England.

In New Orleans, the tradition of above ground burial was established near the end of the eighteenth century. The Governor of Louisiana was from Spain and his Spanish/European influence was felt at all levels of New Orleans society, including the mausoleums. At the time, in Spain, it was fashionable to be buried above ground, and New Orleanians, despite the fact that they were on the edge of the frontier of the New World, wanted to adopt current trends and fashions. Folklore suggests that burials were above ground due to the high water table, but the tradition has more to due with style than practicality.

In the 1870's, an American trend in community mausoleums increased. Rural cemeteries filled rapidly with single person above-ground tombs, filled with elegant private mausoleums and artistic statuary. The time was ripe to offer above ground burial to the masses. Cemetery promoters touted above ground burial as aesthetically pleasing and much easier on the grieving family than having shovelfuls of dirt tossed on their loved ones' remains.

The cost of building individual above-ground tombs, and the maintenance costs of the tombs, resulted in the introduction of the outdoor garden mausoleum.  Indoor mausoleums, frequently in a building that also housed a chapel, had to be heated, adding substantial cost in cold climates. Ironically, the end of the Golden Age of the private mausoleum in the 1920's spurred community mausoleum sales even more.

One of the most ambitious community mausoleum projects, and the world's largest Catholic mausoleum, is Chicago's Queen of Heaven mausoleum complex. The project was launched in 1954 with an appeal to Chicago area Catholics to "purchase a crypt now" and help fund the construction of the mausoleum. Chicago's Catholics responded in remarkable numbers and the Queen of Heaven mausoleum was completed by 1956.  By 1961, a new section, Queen of Angels was added and in 1964, the final section, Queen of All Saints completed the indoor necropolis. The Queen of Heaven triplex mausoleum complex has room for over 33,000 bodies and is about 75% filled. A stunning array of stained glass, statuary and exotic woods greet visitors to Queen of Heaven. The complex also includes a chapel, with crypts lining the the apse and gallery areas giving the chapel area the feel of a modern day version of a European Gothic cathedral.

Mausoleums may be located in a cemetery, a church graveyard, or on private land.  A "mausoleum" that houses cremated remains is called a "colombarium."

For more information about Mausoleums, read:

*  "Mausoleums," Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum)

*  "The Mausoleum Throughout History and Famous Mausoleums" (http://www.historvius.com/features/mausoleum/)

* Douglas Keister, "A Brief History of Community Mausoleums" (http://www.eastridgelawncemetery.com/MausoleumHistory.html)

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