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Building a graveyard in Minecraft

I built a graveyard with the intent of placing a gravestone for every time I died. While planning the build I was forced to confront my (lack-of) skills in this game.

In this post I leverage that horror into a 1 chunk build and some helpful tips for your spooky Halloween builds.

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This is Halloween

Last Halloween I started a giant pumpkin patch with a 1 chunk jack o’lantern as the focal point. This year’s build is going to have some function beyond adding some spooky scenery.

A jack-o-lantern sits in a field with smaller pumpkins around it. The moon rises in the background.

I’ve been tracking deaths in this world since I started with the intention of building a graveyard. As Halloween’s this month, this task has finally risen to the top of my to-do list.

A book is open displaying page 1 of 13. The text reads "Death Diary Vol. 01 Started on: 2024-03-05 MCD 10”

Looking back, I’ve recorded the date of each death inconsistently but I’ve generally noted the Minecraft day (MCD) and how I died. Going forward I’ll be sure to record the real life date. It’s interesting to be able to look back and correspond Minecraft events and reflect on real life times that correspond.

Digging in the dirt

For those of you new to this internet thing. We passed peak internet sometime in the last 10 years. There was a brief time where reliable information could easily be found on any subject known to humanity.

With the quality of search results plummeting I have begun collecting books. One such book is “A global history of architecture”

This book indexes building styles throughout the globe throughout human history. One such style is the Napoleonic cemetery, a concept not easily returned by an internet search.

This book gives the following as examples of this type of cemetery:

  1. Glasgow necropolis
  2. South metropolitan cemetery
  3. Mount Auburn cemetery
A hard cover book sits on a floor (IRL). It is "A Global History of Architecture" Authors; Francis D.K. Ching, Mark M. Jarzombek, Vikramaditya Prakash.

These matches the graveyards I’ve been exposed to personally and through pop culture. These were the images that came to mind when I thought about a spooky graveyard.

Originally the concept was to have a grave marker for every death; however, I had too many deaths to keep the graveyard to a 1 chunk build. While signs allow us to display text, wooden signs don’t make very realistic gravestones.

A cropped image of a barrel and the players inventory. The barrel contains clay pots; 1 is highlighted revealing the name "2024-03-05 MCD 10".

Instead I decided to place named pots in barrels to represent cremated remains.  The renamed pots represent urns.

The decision to use urns creates lore that can become a new build. A crematorium or other venue where bodies would be ceremonially burnt.

A final resting place

The natural place for a graveyard would be next to a church. So before deciding where the dead would rest, I had to decide where the living would worship. I decided the best place for a church would be next to the river near my day 1500 build.

Looking down on the town the graveyard is near the centre of the image. The square graveyard sits just below the foundation of an under-construction church.
The white foundation marks the location of the future church.

Builds in this town typically mark the passage of 500 Minecraft days. It does, however, match the towns role as a museum. Marking my deaths throughout this play through.

The restless dead

This build came together as I started detailing; adding a mix of blocks into the fence around the graveyard. I started out with stone bricks only to decide on a basic design and shape.

For shape I went with a perfect square to maximize space (still dreaming of 1 headstone per death); however, you should consider angles or other more organic shapes. Graveyards like parks, often fill awkward shapes left behind by city planners and their oppressive street networks.

  • The player stands in the arched entrance of a graveyard. A stone and iron fence surrounds the graveyard, The stone base and partitions have been weathered with moss growing on some.
  • The sun sets and darkness overtakes the photo. This photo is intended to provide a day night ambience contrast for readers. A stone and iron fence surrounds the graveyard, The stone base and partitions have been weathered with moss growing on some.

The town generally has some wear, regardless of the status of the building. Having the graveyard appear well kept and unworn would seem out of place from the rest of the town. How well kept your builds are offer an opportunity to tell a story.

Maybe your graveyard is well kept and it offers an insight into the religious practices of your worlds inhabitants. Maybe it’s run down and tells a story about those who haunt the inhabitants of your world. Slightly overgrown and unkept as those who have not fully moved on harass the grounds keepers.

3 Tips for your Minecraft graveyard

Below are 3  a spooky ideas for your 1 chunk graveyard, haunted house on a hill or other location in your world where the dead refuse eternal sleep.

1. Mausoleum or Columbarium

This was my solution to my skill issue. Without the columbarium I would have needed more headstones than a single chunk (or this island) can fit.

  • A small stone brick structure sits in the corner of the graveyard. It's exterior warn with moss growing over its surface. A path cuts through the centre of the image past the darkened trunk of a dead tree.
  • The same view as the previous image but at night. This photo is intended to provide a day night ambience contrast for readers. An eyeblossom sits open and illuminates the side of the columbarium.

The Columbarium and the statue overlooking the sarcophagus (below) tower over the smaller headstones. Bringing height variation and economic stratification to the afterlife.

Mausoleum is defined as containing remains, and Columbarium as urns. While visually they are similar the lore of your world can have one or both of these options.

2. Sarcophagus

A sarcophagus is defined as a stone coffin; this may not be a perfect description of what I built here. But some type of stone burial chamber. Left open for extra spook. Especially with a chest in it’s base looking like a wooden coffin.

  • The player stands in front of a stone sarcophagus with its andesite lid pulled aside. A winged statue overlooks the burial chamber. two small granite headstones sit in the foreground and other burial arrangements can be seen along the parameter of the small graveyard.
  • The same view as the previous image but at night. An open eyeblossom and a soul lantern on the corner of the open sarcophagus. This photo is intended to provide a day night ambience contrast for readers.

Looking over my sarcophagus is a stone statue or effigy. I struggled slightly to find a final version of this I liked. I started with using building blocks to build a statue before deciding to use a armour stand. On this scale I recommend this approach. If you are building on a larger scale then blocks might be a better approach.

Wings were a challenge regardless of scale. I landed on andesite walls connected with an open spruce door in the middle, mostly hidden by the armour. The visible parts of the door are similar to the brown accents of the leather armour and as a result do not stand out. Candles on top of the wall help create the silhouette.

3. A dead tree

It took a little bit of work to find the right combination for a dead tree. I landed on basalt and cobbled deepslate. The challenge was in finding a full block and accent blocks (stairs and walls) that had very little contrast.

Polished basalt is very similar to other log blocks but contrasted too much with accent options. Polished deepslate options were considered for accents but cobbled variants offered a better match at this scale. A few mangrove roots stand in for dead branches and leaves and pale oak leaves and hanging moss the few parts of the tree still clinging to life.

  • The player looks at a tree in the centre of the image. The trunk and limbs are dark grey, almost black. leaves are pale with hanging moss.
  • An aerial shot of the graveyard with the tree in the centre. The tree rises above the graveyard but doesn't dominate the image. It is small, proportioned to the rest of the build. slightly larger than a vanilla tree but smaller in visual presence due to less leaves.
  • The aerial view at night. Light from soul lanterns and eye blossoms provide ambience but not enough light to prevent mob spawning.
  • A view of the tree at night, the dark trunk and branches blend into the night. The pale leaves and moss can be made out in the low light provided by a soul lantern on the columbarium.

Building at the 1 chunk scale is going to help you with custom trees. With less blocks you’ll spend less time gathering resources, placing blocks, and more time shapping. Well, less time shaping compared to a large tree. But this can make it easier. You have less blocks to replicate a tree.

This means your ability to achieve photo-realism is lower and the bar is really vanilla plus. Focus on a silhouette and block palette to communicate a theme rather than attempt to replicate real life. This is a good way to start and learn some tricks before applying on a larger scale.

Wrap up

You could consider building in a pale forest for a more washed out look. Either way try changing your brightness settings to get the atmosphere your looking for.

I decided to stay with the OG moss and grass blocks. Thinking the contrast of the bright green to the grey blocks would make the latter seem more faded. It makes the dead tree and dead bushes that have overtaken the fence in a couple areas stand out. A technique similar to a black and white image where only a single item is coloured (I guess the opposite of this)

I’m thinking about a glossary post or a page to capture terms and definitions I have used. Minecraft among many things, is a learning tool. I use it to learn about concepts or things that interest me but I have no day to day way of interacting with.

Having some of these terms together in a page could help keep terminology consistent and provide an additional reference for ideas and concepts for building. Let me know if that appeals to you in the comments.

Build stats

Real Life Days: 17

Minecraft Days: 47

Hours: 7

This build was a 1 chunk build, if you’d like to see more 1 chunk builds click here.

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