Varazdin Cemetery

Herman Haller took charge of the Varazdin cemetery in 1905 and spent the next three decades turning it into something unusual: rather than treat it as a burial ground with trees, he designed it as a park with burials in it, laying out avenues, planting birch, magnolia and above all yews and thujas, and clipping them into architectural forms - walls, arches and blocks of green that frame the paths and enclose the graves. The scheme was completed in the 1930s and has been maintained since, so the shapes are a century of continuous clipping. It is a working cemetery and is entered as one.

What's there

• A cemetery designed as a park - Haller's scheme from 1905.
• Clipped yews and thujas - shaped into walls and arches.
• Avenues framing the graves - the whole plan laid out deliberately.
• A century of maintenance - the forms kept by continuous clipping.

When to go

April to October for the planting at its best. Two hours.

Good to know

This is an active cemetery with funerals and mourners - quiet behaviour and restraint with cameras are expected. There is no visitor infrastructure. It is a walk from the town centre.

Nearby

Varazdin's baroque centre and castle are a short walk away.

Key facts