Freemason's Grave - Location Outside Church Grounds

Location Outside Church Grounds

The actual spot was chosen as it was the location where he habitually rested on his daily constitutionals, then within Edboms decorative garden, and expressed a wish to be buried. The Walhalla-orden took these wishes to King Gustaf III and gained permission to bury him outside church grounds, when he was examining the troops at Parola, during his visit to Finland. The order's members were also the ones who carried his casket into the ground. In Helsinki, the grave monument is exceptional in that it isn't within a church yard. At the site of Helsinki's first church, the gravestone of a single tradesman is all that has been retained to designate the spot, but Freemason's Grave differs in that it was intended to be a solitary grave from the start. Another similar case is the urn of poetess Katri Vala which is set at a spot adjunct to her eponymous park in the Sörnäinen neighbourhood.