Ankaran Cemetery, Ankaran

Through the contrasts between natural elements, a memorial has been created that preserves the narrative of life in the realm of remembrance.

Places of eternal rest, which architects and landscape architects do not actually design for the deceased, but for those who remain behind, are one of the most complex tasks in architectural practice. What is it that appeals to architects so much about this type of work, with many seeing cemeteries and similar memorials as their favourite projects? Perhaps because the theme of death is so elusively abstract that they want to make it concrete, to capture it in something more tangible? In doing so, the architect must become a mediator between life and death, a messenger between the present and eternity. With this in mind, the architects of the VOID architectural office and the landscape architects from the Studio AKKA designed a new place of remembrance and attempted to create a space of transience and timelessness, marked with the indelible traces of life.

The site of the new cemetery, located on a slope at the edge of a forest outside the coastal town of Ankaran, has a colourful history. The development plan for the Ankaran cemetery was drawn up in the mid-1990s, and the construction of a funeral chapel began according to the designs at the time. Due to different interests, mainly political, construction was halted and the area was designated for tourism. The challenging location, situated on a hill above the central part of the town, thus became land for the construction of tourist facilities. Fortunately, due to opposition and years of efforts by local residents, this particular project did not come to fruition, and after many years the municipality regained ownership of the land for the construction of a cemetery.

Consequently, a large area carved into the hillside and bordering the forest, with an impressive view of the boundless horizon of the sea, has once again become designated as a cemetery, which the residents of Ankaran have been waiting for for more than 20 years. The construction of new cemeteries is not common in our region, but whether designing new ones or renovating old ones, there is a growing awareness that a cemetery is not only a place of burial, but also a place of tranquillity and internal dialogue. The one in Ankaran is designed according to the principle of a forest cemetery, of which there are not many in Slovenia, although a good example is the Srebrniče Cemetery near Novo Mesto by Aleš Vodopivec. The cemetery area is marked by a relatively steep, rather degraded slope, below which stands the modernist Church of St Nicholas from 1984, designed by the architect Ivan Bregant. The cemetery is surrounded by forest on three sides, with a view of the Gulf of Koper opening to the west.

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