Pestkyrkogården i Moshult

Between 1710 and 1711, the plague struck Sweden, and Kalmar County was severely affected by this deadly infectious disease. It is believed that the infection arrived in Sweden aboard a sailing ship from the Baltic that docked in the port of Kalmar in June 1710. Half of the county's population died within just a couple of years before the infection finally subsided. An estimated thirty people are buried in this particular plague cemetery.

The plague appeared in the forms of bubonic and pneumonic plague and was highly lethal. The disease spread from rats to humans through bites from fleas infected by sick rats. In the 14th century, the disease first struck the Nordic countries, leading to more than a third of the population falling ill and dying. The plague recurred sporadically, and during the last epidemic in the 1710s, it struck Småland. This occurred during King Karl XII's prolonged war against Russia, while Sweden was also facing a severe famine. The conditions for survival were therefore not particularly favorable, and the mortality rate was very high, especially among the poorest in society, where hygiene was inadequate and rats were more numerous than in higher social classes. Despite wealthy families generally escaping many diseases, the plague made no exceptions between the rich and the poor. Children, in particular, were heavily affected.

To prevent the spread of infection, those who died from the plague were not allowed to be buried in the parish cemetery. Instead, special plague cemeteries were established a bit away from the village where the victims of the plague were buried. The plague cemetery in Moshult was surrounded by a stone wall around the burial site only in 1956, when a cross was erected in memory of those who died. The plague cemetery in Moshult is said to have inspired Vilhelm Moberg in his stories in "Brudens källa."