The year 1963 should be considered the actual
time when the Pärnamäe Cemetery was put to
use. On November 27, the first funeral took place
in its 1st section. Originally, 55 ha of Iru waste
land had been allotted to the cemetery, which
was not sufficient after 15 years already, as a
result of which, a new plot of land was added to
it with the direction towards Randvere in 1978, so
that by now the territory of cemetery takes up
102 hectares.
By that area, Pärnamäe Cemetery has become
the biggest one among all the others in Tallinn
and also in the whole Estonia. The cemetery has
been divided into irregular sectors of different size
by their sequence, the number of which reaches
fifty.
Varied landscape, nature characteristic of waste
land, sandy soil and the location away from
major traffic and industrial centres are advantages
for the cemetery. In Pärnamäe, very often 10-15
funerals take place in a day. Greenery of pines,
junipers occurring here and there, also some rare
birches and aspens together with the varying hills
give a pleasant general look to the cemetery. It
has been attempted to take that into account
when designing the cemetery while having the
principle of naturalness as the main orientation.
Burying in straight bypaths and lines has been
avoided. Rigid edges of the grave and grave
monuments and constructions that spoil the
general look are also not allowed here.
Construction of the office building and the house
was begun in 1961. By the personnel of the
cemetery the management building was built in
1962. Construction of roads and sections was
begun.
In 1975 construction of the new chapel was
begun, so far the chapel of Iru Retirement Home
(1936) had been used. Before the Olympic Regatta
the construction of the chapel was frozen. In 1982
construction was continued, in 1992
reconstruction of the chapel into crematorium
was started.
Since Metsakalmistu Cemetery has been reserved
as the burial place of outstanding figures in
society and culture, there are relatively few
cultural monuments in Pärnamäe Cemetery. Still,
there are dozens of them already.
Pärnamäe Cemetery allowed to have a look at
several graves of historical and cultural reputation
that have been designed artistically.