Gravediggers Crafts

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The gravedigger profession took care of graves and their surroundings and was hereditary. The beginnings of the professionalisation of this occupation was associated with the introduction of Christian cemeteries.
The gravedigger lived in a wooden hut, right in the cemetery, next to the main entrance and took care of the running of the entire cemetery. He performed his work not only in the village, where he lived, but also visited surrounding villages. He was also responsible for exhuming human remains and placing bones in the ossuary, thus ensuring enough space in the cemetery.
A proper burial was far from affordable for many townspeople. In some places, the deceased poor were cared for by so-called ‘grave people’, who carried them to mass graves in cemeteries. The gravedigger was also not allowed to be present at the funerals of those deemed dishonourable in the eyes of the church, such as suicides or delinquents, for whom denial of burial represented the church’s ultimate punishment for breaking its laws.
Gravediggers belonged among the undesirables on the margins of society, the only one who came into contact with them was the parish priest.

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