The Old Cemetery on Prins Mauritsstraat in Bredevoort was established around 1830, concurrently with the adjacent Jewish Cemetery. The site became available following the dismantling of the fortifications on the eastern side of the town.
The cemetery is characterised by an irregular floor plan, surrounded by beech hedges and tall trees. The oldest section is situated directly along Prins Mauritsstraat. In 1925, the southernmost strip was added to the cemetery. At the same time, a new entrance gate was installed, and a mortuary was built a few years later.
The Kloosterhof Cemetery on the Kloosterdijk in Bredevoort was laid out in 1862–1863 and originally served as a Roman Catholic cemetery.
The oldest, centrally located section features a symmetrical layout with a distinctive entrance gate, a mortuary that also functions as a workshop, and rows of graves facing a Calvary Cross at the rear of the site.
In the 1980s, the cemetery was extended with a general section. In 1989, a mortuary building was also erected, providing facilities for the deceased to lie in state, for families to pay their last respects, and for offering condolences.
In 2024, the Municipality of Aalten announced that part of the cemetery would be designated as a natural burial ground. This development aligns with modern wishes and needs regarding burial.
The Jewish Cemetery on Prins Mauritsstraat in Bredevoort was established around 1830, concurrently with the adjacent general cemetery. The site became available following the dismantling of the fortifications on the eastern side of the town.
The last Jews from Bredevoort to be interred at this cemetery were siblings Levi and Sara Sander. Both passed away in 1938, shortly after one another. The cemetery is not open to the public.
Two Jewish cemeteries
Bredevoort once had two Jewish cemeteries. The oldest was located on the former castle grounds behind Hozenstraat 5. In 1953, this site was sold to the municipality of Aalten for housing construction. The remains and tombstones were then transferred to the second cemetery on the Prins Mauritsstraat.
Location of the former Jewish cemetery on Hozenstraat
Maintenance and Restoration
Initially, the cemetery was maintained by the municipality. Since 2018, volunteers from the Bredevoorts Belang association have been responsible for mowing the grass and keeping the walls and the 12 gravestones free of climbing plants. In 2022, restoration work began to repair cracks in the walls, renew the pointing, and refurbish the gate.
In 1827, King Willem I decreed by law that, as of 1829, cemeteries had to be established outside built-up areas. In Aalten, a site was designated for this purpose on Varsseveldsestraatweg, then known as Melkersweg.
The cemetery was later extended to the west. The oldest section is characterised by relatively empty lawns with scattered old funerary monuments and a small lychgate (baarhuisje). The western part has a more structured, orthogonal layout.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the Old Cemetery became increasingly enclosed by the village’s expanding built-up area. This led to the need for a new cemetery. In 1923, the Berkenhove cemetery on Romienendiek was put into use.
Although the Old Cemetery has since taken on the function of a ‘tranquillity park’, it is still sporadically used for interring the deceased in existing family graves.
A map is available providing an overview of all graves and those interred from circa 1921; click the thumbnail below for a large, legible version (PDF):
Old General Cemetery Aalten, 1921
Commemorative Column
In 2015, as part of the commemorations for 70 years of liberation, a commemorative column was placed at the Old Cemetery to honour all soldiers from Aalten who fought on and around the Grebbeberg in May 1940. Seven servicemen from Aalten lost their lives there. Their names and photographs are immortalised on the column.
Roman Catholic Cemetery
When the cemetery on Varsseveldsestraatweg was established, the Catholic community in Aalten insisted that a separate section be designated and consecrated for them. The municipality purchased a piece of land for this purpose across the street, on the corner with Molenstraat.
However, this small Catholic cemetery became full after only thirty years. In 1868, a new R.C. cemetery on Piet Heinstraat was opened. The former Catholic burial ground on Varsseveldsestraatweg later became a public green space. The graves of at least 50 Aalten Catholics, however, were never cleared.
In 2015, the site was redesigned at the initiative of local residents to better reflect its historical significance. An information panel has been placed at the location highlighting the history of the cemetery.
Owners
Overview is incomplete.
Year
Plot
Owner
Description
1832
I-1409 I-1436
The Municipality of Aalten
4.430 m² (Protestant) churchyard 720 m² (R.C.) churchyard
In the late 1860s, the small Roman Catholic cemetery on the corner of Varsseveldsestraatweg and Molenstraat reached its capacity. This created a need for a new cemetery for the Catholic community in Aalten.
In 1868, Anton Driessen, a textile manufacturer in Aalten, donated a plot of land on what is now Piet Heinstraat to the church to be established as a cemetery. In addition to the land, he donated an iron Calvary cross and an iron gate, both of which still stand today. Anton also stipulated that his family be buried in a contiguous plot next to the cross. The mortuary on the cemetery grounds dates from 1888.
Lack of space and closure
A century later, this cemetery also became full, and there was no room for expansion. From 1960 onwards, Catholic deceased were therefore buried in the new Roman Catholic section of the Berkenhove cemetery.
In the early 1970s, the cemetery on Piet Heinstraat was officially closed. The site was transferred to the municipality of Aalten for the symbolic amount of one guilder.
Notable graves
Several prominent Catholic former residents of Aalten rest in this cemetery, including various members of the Driessen textile family. This family is inextricably linked to the textile history of Aalten and had a major influence on the emancipation of the Roman Catholic population in the municipality.
The grave of Pastor Van Rooijen, who died on January 23, 1945, during a bombardment of Dijkstraat, is also located here. Additionally, there are graves of the sisters from the former Saint Elizabeth Convent on Dijkstraat. They provided primary education at the Saint Joseph School and nursed the sick of all faiths.
View the graves, as far as they are known, on Findagrave.
Tubantia, 3 October 1960
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