I had to go to Stockholm recently to take care of some very boring business. But because I arrived there about 5 hours before my meeting, I decided to visit Skogskyrkogården – the Woodland Cemetery. Why? It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and if that’s not enough for you, then Greta Garbo is buried there, too. And it just so happens that I’m a fan.

And that’s why one early August morning I found myself boarding the number 18 subway train going to Farsta, sitting down and promptly falling asleep.

When I finally came to, it turned out I missed the Skogskyrkogården stop where I needed to get off in order to visit Greta, and so I rode the tunnelbana happily to the end of the line and back again.

Once at Skogskyrkogården, finding the cemetery is very easy as well – just exit the station, turn right and walk past the flower shop selling funeral wreaths.

When in 1994 the Woodland Cemetery in Stockholm was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list, I immediately started suspecting that perhaps there was an acute shortage of more worthy world heritage sites. The cemetery is just that – a big, green, wooded cemetery, graves and all. It’s really lovely and a stroll through the grounds is very pleasant, but really, as far as the world heritage stuff goes, the Bamiyan Valley it is not.

Because it was too early in the morning and the visitors’ center was still closed, I just lazily walked around and went looking for the grave of Greta Garbo.

It always surprises me how many people don’t know that Greta used to be Swedish. “Used to”, because in 1951 she became an American citizen. Back in those days Sweden did not allow dual citizenships, it’s a relatively recent change in the Swedish law, and so Sweden’s loss was America’s gain.

Greta Garbo was born as Greta Lovisa Gustafsson in Stockholm on September 18, 1905. She was one of the greatest actresses of the silent-movie era, and in 1999 was voted the fifth greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute. Incidentally, at number four on that list there’s another Swede – Ingrid Bergman. But of the two, I definitely prefer Garbo – she had much better eyebrows.

Greta “I vant to be alone” Garbo was always perceived as cold and serious and very private. But the film of hers I like the best is actually a comedy and she’s even laughing in it. Yes, I’m talking about “Ninotchka”. In 1990, “Ninotchka” was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. (Ah, they can say what they want, I know it was selected because of Greta’s magnificently perfect eyebrows.)

Greta Garbo died in New York City on April 15, 1990, and after a lengthy legal battle her ashes were brought back to Sweden and buried at Skogskyrkogården.

And that for me was the real reason to visit the cemetery. UNESCO World Heritage simply can’t compare with Greta. (Sorry UNESCO!)

Words for today:

• skådespelare (def. skådespelaren, pl. skådespelare, pl. def. skådespelarna) – person som spelar roller på teater eller film = person who plays roles in the theater or in films (actor)
• skådespelerska (def. –spelerskan, pl. –spelerskor, pl. def. -spelerskorna) – kvinnlig skådespelare = a female actor (actress)
• stjärna (def. stjärnan, pl. stjärnor, def. pl. stjärnorna) = star (in the sky, or a celebrity)
• filmstjärna = film star

Greta Garbo photograph: U.S. Library of Congress