The Freemason's Grave is a grave monument on a grassy

knoll In geography, knoll is another term for a knowe or hillock, a small, low, round natural hill or mound. Knoll may also refer to: Places * Knoll Camp, site of an Iron Age hill fort Hampshire, England, United Kingdom * Knoll Lake, Leonard Canyon, A ...

northwest of the Kaisaniemi Botanical Gardens in Helsinki,

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. It commemorates Fredrik Granatenhjelm, a notable

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...

officer from the Suomenlinna fortress, who later moved to the mainland

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

proper, gaining great repute as a philanthropist.

Granatenhjelm

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

Royal Knight; a veteran of the Seven Years' War and the War of the Caps, Fredrik Granatenhjelm (May 1, 1708 – December 13, 1784), is buried in the grave. Despite the monument's name, possibly derived from its square and compasses decorations, it is not known whether Granatenhjelm himself was a member of the Freemasons. Some historians have been led to assume it, perhaps out of weight from the popular designation of the monument. It is known for certain that he was posthumously made an honorary member of the quasi-masonic

Walhalla-orden Walhalla-orden was a secret society founded in the early part of 1783 in the Sveaborg (today, in Finnish: Suomenlinna) fortress outside Helsinki, Finland by Johan Anders Jägerhorn along with Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm. It is thought to have been ...

Location outside church grounds

The spot was chosen as it was the location where the officer habitually rested on his daily constitutionals, then within Edboms decorative garden, and where he had expressed a wish to be buried. The

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. The grave monument is exceptional within the city in that it is not 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 poet Katri Vala which is set at a spot adjacent to her eponymous park in the

Sörnäinen Sörnäinen ( sv, Sörnäs; ''Sörkkä'' or ''Sörkka'' in Helsinki slang) is a neighbourhood in the city of Helsinki, Finland. Sörnäinen is located a little more than one kilometre north from the coastal centre of Helsinki, near the district ...

neighbourhood.

Monument above the grave

Originally a statue was planned for the site, but when that plan failed, Lars Jägerhorm was able to get a commemorative stone and guardrails around it. The masonic symbols of that guardrail that have led to the popular designation of the monument as a "Freemason's grave". The unbeaten stone face bears the freehand style inscription: ''"Lika godt om verlden vet hvem här hvilar alt nog Gud käner hvad Han gjort och Uslingen välsignar HANS minne."'' ("As little as the world cares who lies here, God will nevertheless know his deeds and the wretched bless HIS memory.") An evergreen conifer is planted next to the stone, and an ironwork guardrail with masonic square and compass are featured within the rails; this decoration and the inscription on the stone is kept painted with gold. The emblems of field artillery, incendiary grenades, are set as knobs to top the posts at the corners of the ironworks; palpably also a play of words on his family name "Granatenhjelm".

References

External links

Freemason's Tomb – Helsinki Art Museum
{{Helsinki Cityscape Buildings and structures in Helsinki Cemeteries in Finland Kluuvi