Metsakalmistu

Metsakalmistu (meaning Forest Cemetery) is a cemetery in the Pirita district of Tallinn.

Tallinn Forest Cemetery Chapel, designed by architect Herbert Johanson

Metsakalmistu was originally planned to be a public medieval cemetery. Eduard Vilde was the first to be buried in 1933. The original area of the cemetery was 24.2 hectares, but has since expanded to be 48.3 hectares.

Metsakalmistu was officially opened in 1939. That same year, 15 people were buried in the cemetery.[1] In 1939, the nearby Kloostrimetsa Farm cemetery was created, which eventually, through expansion, became part of an expanded Metsakalmistu.

At first, the designers of the cemetery were unanimous about the general design requirements of the cemetery, but the area was still dominated by the appearance of a wild forest. Initially, there was placement of crosses, girders, ranks, and calcareous stones, the largest size of which were 80x50 cm. Subsequently, the use of natural barriers, such as grass slabs, were built and have been extended to include a moss bed cover, along with borders marked by flowers. Monumental gravestones were not recommended initially for the cemetery, but they still exist to a small extent. At present, the permissible maximum height for a pillar is 1.5 m.

The main chapel of Metsakalmistu was built in 1936, with its main architect being Herbert Johanson. The chapel was vandalized by the Soviet Union after the establishment of the Estonian SSR, but in 1996 it was restored with the support of the Tallinn City Government. In 2006, a columbarium was built.

Tombstones in Metsakalmistu are reserved for notable Estonian people involved in, among other professions, theatre, sports, composing, writing, the arts, journalism, medicine, architecture, and science, as well as other public figures; those who were soldiers in the Finnish Infantry Regiment 200, as well as the veterans of the Estonian War of Independence, are also buried here.[2]