Vernacular classicism and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: the architectural imaginary of a Danish interwar crematorium

Abstract

This article discusses a crematorium inaugurated in 1923 in the municipal Northern Cemetery (Nordre Kirkegård) of Aarhus as a case of vernacular classicism in interwar Denmark. While earlier works by its architect Sophus Frederik Kühnel (1851–1930) followed National Romantic, Renaissance, and Gothic models, the crematorium stands out because of its crowning feature, a stepped pyramid roof that emulates one of the most characteristic architectural elements of the mid-fourth-century BCE Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, described by Pliny the Elder (HN 36.31) and other ancient authors. This reference to one of the most famous funerary monuments from classical antiquity is both functionally and symbolically appropriate in a cemetery setting and also fits into a longer history of ‘Mausoleumania’, both in Denmark and internationally. Furthermore, it reflects a broader architectural movement of vernacular, ‘Nordic’ classicism during the interwar period, when local architects ‘translated’ classical elements into the vernacular, for example, through prominent use of brickwork and eclectic combinations of classical motifs with both medieval and National Romantic forms. Kühnel’s crematorium shows some of the creative ways in which Scandinavian architects freely adapted distinctive elements from the repertoire of classical architecture, in this case in response to the rise of cremation.