Experience

City of Antwerp opens ‘Garden of Consolation’ at Silsburg Cemetery

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The City of Antwerp opened in September 2025 the Garden of Consolation at Silsburg Cemetery. Here, comfort, nature and sustainability come together in a new ecological burial form. This is the first place in Antwerp where mosaic burial is offered.

The garden consists of seven organically shaped planting beds filled with fragrant herbs. With this garden, the city creates a serene place where nature and remembrance merge.

Alderman for Green Ken Casier (N-VA): “Our city has a tradition in the field of ecological burials, with urn forests and urn landscapes in the different districts. This Garden of Consolation in Silsburg expands this offer in an innovative way with a unique method: mosaic burial of biodegradable ash urns around planting beds full of herbs.”

Ecological and anonymous

This garden is an ecological burial form in which the deceased are interred in biodegradable ash urns. The urn dissolves into the earth, after which the ashes mix with the soil. 

No identifying markers are placed, allowing the resting place to completely merge into the landscape over time. This way of remembrance appeals to people of Antwerp who value transience and a bond with nature. No concession fees are charged for this burial form.

Mosaic burial

The Garden of Consolation is the very first burial site in Antwerp where graves are not assigned in order. Relatives are given the opportunity to choose around which planting bed the deceased’s ash urn will be buried. This creates a mosaic of burial places, as opposed to the more classical allocation in sequence. Within a chosen planting bed, of course, the position of previously interred ash urns is taken into account.

Antwerp pioneer in ecological burials

The city has a long tradition in the field of ecological burials. The first urn forest at Schoonselhof Cemetery opened in 2011 and was awarded an International Funeral Award. 

Later came, among others, urn forests and ecological urn landscapes in Berendrecht, Deurne, Ekeren, Merksem and Berchem. 

The Garden of Consolation in Silsburg is the latest addition to this offer and is unique in its own way because of the mosaic burial and the garden-like character.

Silsburg Cemetery

Although the cemetery is located in the district of Deurne, it is the cemetery of Borgerhout.

On the look of Antwerp

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