The Maussolleion of Halikanassos – and especially its stepped, pyramidal roof – has inspired all sorts of public architecture in the modern world. Buildings from London to Los Angeles and Melbourne have thus been part of a global discourse of classicism rooted in this (lost) wonder of the ancient world. A well-known Danish example is Hack Kampmann’s 1906 extension of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.
A much less known example is the old, short-lived crematorium in Aarhus’ Nordre Kirkegård, one of the municipal cemeteries in Aarhus Kommune. The crematorium was designed by the architect Sophus Frederik Kühnel (1851-1930) and inaugurated in 1923. After a new crematorium was built in the basement of the cemetery chapel in 1941, the old one was (sadly) demolished.
This was in fact the second Maussolleion-inspired building in Aarhus. The first had been a more humble component of the National Exhibition of 1909 (as we briefly discuss in this book). The first images below are taken from Aarhusbilleder.dk; the second batch is from the Aarhusarkivet.dk.
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