4. Tombs
A cemetery must have a suitable infrastructure, such as burial plots, chapels, churches, the mortuary.
Tombs were the most prestigious forms of burial and in the Middle Ages, they were accessible only to church representatives. Only the richest were buried inside churches. In 1784, Joseph II prohibited the burial in tombs inside churches with a decree, though with some minor exceptions.
From the Middle Ages onwards, the burial in family tombs was also practiced by nobility and wealthy bourgeoisie. The deceased from the simple rural and urban environments were buried in cemeteries in the consecrated ground.
In the middle of the 18th century, when a new Ptuj city cemetery was established, a line of tombs was arranged by the wall for the richer citizens. The desire for prestige also stimulated the artistic creativity of stonecutters who created exterior images in monumental shapes and mausoleums for the tombs.
