Bergen will remove 11,500 graves
At the cemeteries in Bergen, there are 11,500 graves which the authorities do not know who owns. The graves are removed within five years if the owners do not take any contact.
“The graveyard authority in Bergen want to be contacted,” it says on the labels at the headstones. When tag hung on the grave for a year without the owner shows up, will the headstone and the flower bed be removed, writes the local newspaper Bergens Tidende.
– If someone owns a pit but did not visit it in a year, I think they do not have such strong attachments to whoever is buried, says the head of burial authority, Anne Bjordal Jonsson. The Authority has tried to find the owners of 30,000 tombs since 2005. Now it remains 11,500, and these are scheduled to be removed by 2021 if the owners do not make contact.
Previously, the tombstones were covered with black bags, a practice that was stopped because it aroused strong reactions.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
