The Current Funeral Architecture as the Heritage of the 20th Century and its Routing in the 21st Century in the Czech Republic

Abstract

“The life of the dead is stored in the memory of the living.” These words said Roman speaker, philosopher and writer Marcus Tullius Cicero two thousand years ago, but they are still up to date. The Christian doctrine later strengthen these words and they are embedded in sacral structures, which previously where used for the last farewell ceremonies, inter alia. Major changes came during the 19th Century in Czech Lands. The cremation is massively promoted for better hygiene and as the expression of human progress. Josephine reforms and the onset of secularization started the process of the transformation of the last farewell ceremonies ongoing during whole 20th Century in the Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic. Massive construction of crematories and funeral halls (without cremation), as well as the political program of the communist regime, supported contemporary popularity of secular ceremonies and cremation. These changes had a considerable influence to the formation and transformation of cemeteries and their position in urban structure.