The Resurrection Chapel photographed from behind, just three years after its inauguration. Photo: H. B. Goodwin, 1928.

Fredrik: Listening point six. The Chapel of Resurrection from 1925. Designed by Sigurd Lewerentz.

This Listening point consists of two parts. In the first part, Eva and I are standing outside the chapel, and in the second part we enter the chapel and continue our conversation inside. Unfortunately you cannot come with us, but if you continue listening outside the chapel, maybe you will be able to imagine the interior. And if you want to watch pictures and films from the chapel, please visit the homepage of the Woodland Cemetery.

Eva: In 1921 the cemetery had been in use for a year, with just the small Woodland Chapel by Gunnar Asplund, and there was still no economy to build the main crematorium complex, so it was decided then to create a second chapel. And since Asplund created the first, it was now Lewerentz turn.

Fredrik: And what was his plan for the chapel?

Eva: Well he really wanted the procession along the path of Seven Wells to be unbroken through the new chapel. So the first suggestions were chapels north-south facing, with an entrance from the north and an exit to the south. But that was surprisingly too radical for the cemetery administration. They wanted an east-west oriented chapel, even though the cemetery was multi-confessional and not specifically Christian. So in the end, Lewerentz had to accept the east-west orientation. But as you can see, he kept the entrance portico central to the axis, to give us that visual impressions of a whole chapel along the pathway.

Fredrik: What can you tell about this architect Sigurd Lewerentz?

Eva: Well he is really a mystery in Swedish architectural history. We know very little about him. He was born in 1885, studied as an engineer and then an architect. He traveled to Italy on his grand tour and he also worked in Germany. But he never said anything about his architecture or his visions during his whole life. And he became 90 years old, he died in 1975. And when you study his work he comes across as a rather weird combination of both experiment and perfection. He always had new ideas, new solutions and he was never finished. This chapel is his first major work and as you can see a kind of a classical composition, but one that breaks all rules of classical architecture. Everything is wrong: proportions, facade, columns, capitals, doors, windows and so on. And I would say this is possibly the most peculiar building in Sweden.

Fredrik: This chapel is normally not open for visitors, except for participants of a ceremony. And for that reason you, our listener, have to stay out here and listen to Eva and me, when we walk into the chapel and continue our conversation in there.

...

Now we are inside the Chapel of Resurrection and it's truly a very special room.

Eva: And the inside is as peculiar as the outside. We know that Lewerentz was fascinated by the mathematics of the golden section. So the whole interior is a mathematical construction. It's seven meters wide times 1.618, that's the ratio of the golden section, and that gives you the height, 11.3 meters. And when you add these numbers together you get the length of the room and that's 18.3 meters.

And one single window throws all natural light onto the cataphalk, that's a stand where you place the coffin with the deceased. And in that way the light focuses the room on the main subject of the funeral ceremony. And the interior in all shows a display of very disparate details. You have these light grey walls with a kind of facade decoration, flat pilasters and a divide high up, a dark blue coffered ceiling, and the chairs in black and gold with a rather Egyptian look. And the floor is a beautiful marble mosaic in a pattern of waves as I interpret it. And water is also a very universal symbol, relating to both life and death.

Fredrik: And then there is a kind of baldachin in the front.

Eva: It looks like a very odd antique temple. And even more peculiar is that inside there is a super brutalist altar table in red. And that's really futuristic in 1925. And when you turn around you see the exit door. And when you leave after the ceremony you exit through this smaller west door and that's symbolically going back to life after the ceremony.

Fredrik: So how do you interpret this room?

Eva: It's a very striking, eclectic mix of bits and pieces of architectural history. Egyptian, Roman, Renaissance, Baroque and even modernism. I would say the chapel is quite demanding, it's very strict, almost austere. And we can only guess Lewerentz intent. It might be something of a burial chamber or even a kind of a timeline through architectural history. Or it might be just an experiment. But it is a building that leaves no one indifferent.