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All the Netherlands Roermond The Linked Headstones of Het Oude Kerkhof

The Linked Headstones of Het Oude Kerkhof

Two gravestones clasp hands over the religious divide.

Roermond, Netherlands

Added By
Oliver Hong
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Het Oude Kerkhof   Wikimedia
Het Oude Kerkhof   Wikimedia
Het Oude Kerkhof   Wikimedia
Het Oude Kerkhof   Brentjes.com
Het Oude Kerkhof   Brentjes.com
on her side an alliance arms   Grave with a view Marjolein / Atlas Obscura User
At his side the arms of the Van Gorkum family   Grave with a view Marjolein / Atlas Obscura User
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About

Despite the religious divide of the lives and cemeteries, the gravestones of Colonel J.C.P.H. of Aeffderson and noblewoman J.W.C. Van Gorkum clasp hands across the divide. 

In the 19th century, the Dutch lived with Pillarisation, a policy which seperated public establishments by religious and political affiliations. Yet Colonel Aeffderson was a Protestant, and Van Gorkum was a Catholic. They were married for 40 years, a union that likely caused some scandal in the 19th-century Netherlands. 

The Protestant husband died first, and then Van Gorkum. They wanted to be buried alongside each other, but the policies of Pillarisation made that impossible. Instead, two stone hands were added to the back of their gravestones, clasping across the wall that separates them.

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Community Contributors

Added By

Oliver Hong

Edited By

hrnick, Grave with a view Marjolein, ddudink

  • hrnick
  • Grave with a view Marjolein
  • ddudink

Published

April 8, 2013

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Sources
  • http://www.brentjes.com/van%20meurs.htm
  • http://unusualplaces.org/listing/graves-of-a-catholic-woman-and-her-protestant-husband/
The Linked Headstones of Het Oude Kerkhof
1 C Weg langs het Kerkhof
Postbus 2396
Roermond, 6045 AL
Netherlands
51.18167, 5.999961
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