The best cemetery in the world is not a bad claim to make for a forest on the southern edge of Stockholm. Skogskyrkogarden, the Woodland Cemetery, was designed by two young architects, Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz, who won a competition in 1915 with a plan that used the existing pine forest and a gravel pit as the starting point. They built it in stages over the next twenty-five years, and it was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 1994 as a masterpiece of twentieth-century landscape design. The idea was that death should not be shown as a dark hole, but as a return to nature.
You enter along a long straight path, with a stone cross standing alone against the sky, and gradually the forest opens out. The first thing you see is a gentle grassy hill, a man-made mound with a ring of elm trees at the top, called the Meditation Grove. Graves lie scattered in the forest, unhedged, with simple markers under the pines, so that families can mourn without feeling shut in. The Woodland Chapel, the first building Asplund completed here, has a steep roof of black shingles and a portico of slender white columns, a quiet, almost childlike design, that feels like a small house in the woods. Nearby, Lewerentz's chapels of Faith, Hope and the Holy Cross have a more severe, classical air. Greta Garbo is buried here, in a quiet corner, and the visit is a favourite for architects and walkers.
Getting here is easy. It lies in the district of Enskede, south of the city centre, with the metro station of Skogskyrkogarden on the green line, and a main road passing nearby. For a rider it is a short, simple run from the centre, through typical Stockholm suburbs, with good roads, tram lines and many cyclists. Speed cameras and limits are strictly observed, and parking near the entrance is free. Fuel and food are plentiful in the city, and the neighbourhoods of Arsta and Sodermalm have cafes and shops.
Autumn is when the cemetery is most beautiful, with the leaves turning gold and the light low. In winter, with snow on the ground and a few candles at the graves, it has a solemn, magical atmosphere. Walk slowly, speak quietly, and remember that this is a working cemetery.