Ristiniemi Cemetery was inaugurated as the main cemetery of the City of Hamina in 1951. Architect brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen designed the funerary chapel that was built in 1964–1965. The chapel is one of many sacred buildings the Suomalainens designed in their career, the most well-known work of theirs being the Temppelinaukio Church in Helsinki, completed in 1969.

The cemetery is situated outside the downtown of Hamina and is a woodland cemetery. The cemetery’s central point is the Modernist funerary chapel. Its primary building material is white painted sand-lime brick. The bell tower is a separate building. The chapel’s renovation, planned by architect Ulla Hovi was completed in 2011.