Olsany Cemetery

Olšany Cemeteries is the largest graveyard in Prague, once having as many as two million burials. The graveyard is particularly noted for its many remarkable art nouveau monuments.

The cemeteries were created in 1680 to accommodate plague victims who died en masse in Prague and needed to be buried quickly. In 1787, when the plague again struck the city, Emperor Joseph II banned the burial of bodies within Prague city limits and Olšany Cemeteries were declared the central graveyard for hygiene purposes.

The Olšany necropolis consists of twelve cemeteries, including, i.a., an Orthodox and a tiny Muslim section, the largest Jewish cemetery in the Czech Republic and military burial grounds. Among the thousands of military personnel buried at Olšany, there are Russian soldiers and officers from the Napoleonic Wars, members of the Czechoslovak Legion, Czechoslovak soldiers, officers and pilots who fought at the Eastern and Western Front and in North Africa during the Second World War as well as male and female members of the Soviet and Commonwealth (including British, Canadian, South African, Greek and Turkish Cypriot and Polish) armed forces who died for the freedom of Czechoslovakia in 1944-1945, including POWs.

Till this day there is evidence of 230,000 people buried, 65,000 grave sites, 200 chapel graves and six columbariums in Olšany Cemeteries.

References:

• Wikipedia

Address

Vinohradská 155, Prague, Czech Republic

Details

Founded: 1680
Category: Cemeteries, mausoleums and burial places in Czech Republic