Mausoleums and vaults

The name mausoleum goes back to the tomb of Mausolus, the satrap of Caria, which was built at Halicarnassus between 377 and 353 BC and counted among the Seven Wonders of the World. In German the word is recorded from the sixteenth century. Classicism took up the form again, now on a smaller scale.

Modern mausoleums often consist of a chapel room with a vault beneath it. A vault is a walled burial place in which the coffin stands in a hollow space. With the rise of the middle classes, family vaults remained a prestigious form of burial in the nineteenth century, usually reached by a stair. Later, coffins were no longer allowed to stand freely but had to rest in wall niches or closed chambers.

Special forms can be found in individual cemeteries. At Mainz Main Cemetery, portal vaults were built between 1850 and 1879, showing only a barred portal above ground. The Fürstengruft in Weimar was built between 1823 and 1828 to designs by Clemens Wenzeslaus Coudray. The Alter Südfriedhof in Munich has around 270 vaults, and at Waibstadt an octagonal domed mausoleum stands beside a Jewish cemetery.

Many of these structures are now dilapidated or listed. They preserve names, coats of arms and craftsmanship, and they call for restraint when you visit.