Graf met de handjes, Historical grave monument in Old Cemetery, Roermond, Netherlands
Graf met de handjes is a grave monument in the old cemetery of Roermond where two gravestones with sandstone columns stand on opposite sides of a wall. The two monuments are joined by carved hands that appear to reach toward each other across the dividing structure.
Colonel Van Gorkum and Lady Van Aefferden married in 1842 despite belonging to different faiths and were buried in separate cemetery sections after their deaths in 1880 according to church regulations of the time. The family then commissioned this monument to express their bond beyond death.
The name comes from the carved hands that join above the cemetery wall and remain part of the local memory in town. Visitors see here how religious division once shaped everyday life and is still visible in the layout of the burial ground.
The monument stands at Weg Langs Het Kerkhof 1 and can be visited during cemetery opening hours. Those who wish to view it quietly should come early in the morning or in the evening when fewer visitors are around.
Each gravestone has a wrought iron fence and the family crest of its occupant, with decorative details that mirror the late 19th-century style. The hands reaching across the top of the wall were carved from a single piece of sandstone and give the monument its symbolic force.
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