Cemeteries in Prague are so interesting and so nicely decorated, that they deserve to be described and told about. One of the most interesting cemeteries of the capital of Czech Republic is Vysehrad Slavin Cemetery. It is more than just a quiet, ordinary cemetery. Many honored people found it as a final resting place. Famous writers, sculptors, artists and composers, scientists and politicians were buried there. Personalities names like B. Smetana, A. Mucha, A.Dvorak can be found there.

Beautifully decorated and carefully arranged the cemetery became an art object itself. The masterpiece of the Cemetery is the Pantheon or “Slavin” was designed by Antonin Wiehl. The Slavin, the great tomb, was constructed in 1890 at the times of National Revival in Prague.

The Olsany Cemetery (Olsanské hrbitovy) was created in 1680 in order to accommodate plagued victims who died en masse in Prague in 1680 and had to be buried very quickly. In 1787, when the plague again struck the city, Emperor Joseph II prohibited bury the bodies within borders of Prague city and Olsany Cemetery was declared the central graveyard for hygiene purposes.

The graveyard is divided into sections. In the Jewish part there is a grave of famous writer Franz Kafka. In the Christian part of the Cemetery there is a grave of Jan Palach. This man set himself on fire and burned himself to death in 1968 as an act of protest against Soviet invasion. His body was taken out from Olsany Cemetery in 1973 to prevent his grave from becoming the site of organized protests. His coffin was returned to Olsany in 1990. The first communist president Klement Gottwald was buried there as well.

Old Jewish Cemetery is one of the most impressive things to see near some of the most ancient hotels in Prague. It is the oldest existing cemetery of Jews in Europe. Old Jewish Cemetery is located in Josefov – former Jewish ghetto. This cemetery was used from 1439 to 1787. The Nazis made a policy to destroy Jewish cemeteries, sometimes using the tombstones for target practice. Nazis Fuhrer Hitler ordered that this cemetery be left intact. Adolf Hitler was planning to build a Jewish museum in Prague when all Jews in Europe had been exterminated according to his diabolical plan.

There are more than 100,000 Jews were buried in this small cemetery. Some graves were being layered 12 deep. This fact is not unusual for European cemeteries. It happens because of limited space, which is at a premium. In the Old Jewish Cemetery in Josefov, there are around 12,000 tombstones, situated crowded closely together with almost no grass in between them.

This cemetery was established when Jews were prohibited to bury their bodies outside the Jewish district. Nowadays this place became and impressive sight for many tourist coming to Prague. The most well known personalities buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery are Yehuda ben Bezalel known as Maharal Rabbi Löw, Mordechai Maisel, David Gans and David Oppenheim.

Jewish cemetery in Žižkov

The Jewish cemetery in Zizkov (known as the First Israeli Cemetery in Olsany) was established in 1680, as a plague burial ground for Jewish Community in Prague. Burials took place over there during a plague epidemic in the second decade of the l8th century. It continued to function on a regular basis from 1787, when a ban on burials within the city came into force. The cemetery was in use until 1890, when a new Jewish cemetery was established in the Strasnice district of Prague.

After World War II the cemetery fell into a state of disrepair and some tombstones were destroyed. In early 1960s it was mostly discontinued and turned into a park. However, the oldest section with the tombstones of important personalities was preserved and separated from the park by a new wall. In 1980s a television transmitter tower was constructed in the area of the park. Earlier preserved section of the cemetery got under administration of the Jewish Museum in Prague in 1998. After essential building arrangements were completed and basic restoration work was done, the cemetery was opened to the public in September 2001.