Mannerheim's tombstone

Detail from Mannerheim's tombstone
Originally uploaded by HyperBob.

Went to Hietaniemi graveyard today and took lots of pictures of chairs. Old chairs neglected, worn and rusted. Most of them were in the Orthodox part of the graveyard. No chairs were in the Jewish part and only one in the Islamic part. For a slideshow of all the chairs and benches go to Chairs and benches at Hietaniemi graveyard

There was a Jewish Graveyard which was walled in and the gate was locked. There were no new stones there, only old ones. What conclusions can you draw from that? There are no Jews in Helsinki, or they get buried some place else?

Behind the Jewish part is a large area for Muslims. It is guarded by video cameras. All of the graves in there are new, or at least none of the stones have gathered moss or lichen.



Jews and Muslims lying in peace what a dream. It would appear that muslims fought in the continuation war from 1939-44.





Mannerheim's tomb is enormous and a few steps away from it is a small cross for Gereral Ehrnrooth, who some say was a more inspiring man than Mannerheim.



Sloping away from Mannerheims tomb are the graves of the soldiers who died in the 2nd world war. Each grave has some sort of blood red fushia. The flowers look like drops of blood.

The is a special hill for artists. I saw Alver Aalto's grave and Akseli Gallen-Kalella. There is quite a few weird pagan like stones of Celtic or Norse origin.

I was told by a gardener they were put up around the turn of the century when Finnish people were considering their identity. Breaking free from Sweden and Russia. Taking new Finnish names and discovering their past.



Some of the stones are quite striking, but other monuments have been ravaged by the passage of time.