and churchyard in
Jomala,
Åland and churchyard in
Alaska church and churchyard in
Ohio After the establishment of the parish as the centre of the Christian spiritual life, the possession of a cemetery, as well as the baptismal font, was a mark of parochial status. During the Middle Ages, religious orders also constructed cemeteries around their churches. Thus, the most common use of churchyards was as a
consecrated burial ground known as a
graveyard. Graveyards were usually established at the same time as the building of the relevant place of worship (which can date back to the 6th to 14th centuries) and were often used by those families who could not afford to be buried inside or beneath the place of worship itself. However, many
churchyards in Northwestern France and in the UK may predate the establishment of the Christian church there today. For example, the existence of the
Fortingall Yew, an ancient tree (
Taxus baccata) in the churchyard of
Fortingall, a village in
Perthshire, Scotland, has been used to suggest pre-Christian activity on the site, although yews are difficult to date exactly. Most headstones and other memorials are of the 17th century at the earliest, as ground would often be reused for further burials and only some families could afford any memorials. The use of churchyards as burial grounds for the deceased was diminished all over Europe in various stages between the 18th to 19th centuries due to lack of space for new
headstones. In many European states, burial in churchyards was outlawed altogether either by
royal decrees or government
legislation for public
hygiene reasons and portions of churchyards were taken in order for
roads to be built or expanded. The loss of part (or all) of the churchyard, often, led also to the removal and permanent loss of centuries-old graves and headstones. In some cases, the human remains were
exhumed and the
gravestones transferred. In other cases, all headstones have been removed, to create a park-like environment, or simply to facilitate the seasonal cutting and removal of
grass or
weeds. In at least one case in the
United States, the headstones from a churchyard in
Pittsburgh were used to help form the foundation for an addition to the church fifty years after the last burial in the churchyard took place (the foundation itself unknowingly went through fifteen graves), with the churchyard itself becoming a
parking lot nearly forty years after that; the churchyard was largely forgotten until
PennDOT purchased the church property via
eminent domain for construction of
Interstate 279 and subsequently unearthed 727 graves. Some churchyards across the world are still used as graveyards today, particularly in most
hamlets and small towns. Public cemeteries are primarily seen in major towns and cities. ==Ecology==