Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague โ€” cemetery
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Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague

  • 1 min read
  • 50.090ยฐ N 14.417ยฐ E

Interesting facts

  • Far more people lie here than there are stones: estimates of the number of burials run to around 100,000.
  • Researchers estimate that in places the graves are stacked ten or even twelve layers deep.
  • Burials ended because Emperor Joseph II banned burials inside the city walls in 1784 on grounds of hygiene; the last stone dates from 1787.
  • A low mound called the Nephele holds children who died before the age of one month, along with remains found during the clearance of the old ghetto.
  • The oldest stones are slabs of dark sandstone, while after 1600 white and reddish marble and house-shaped tombs appeared.
  • Some stones carry the tools of the dead person's trade, and a fish marks members of the Fischel family.
  • Rabbi Loew, buried here, is the central figure of the Prague legend of the Golem, a man of clay brought to life.
  • The Hebrew printer Mordecai Katz, who died in 1592, is among those buried in the cemetery.
  • The adjoining Klausen Synagogue, completed in 1694, was the largest in the ghetto and served the Jewish burial society.
  • The Ceremonial Hall beside the cemetery was built for the Prague Jewish Burial Society in 1906โ€“1908.

Why it is worth it

The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague's Josefov is one of the most important Jewish burial grounds in Europe, and one of the most affecting places in the city. More than 12,000 tombstones stand here, packed so closely that they lean against one another in every direction. The cemetery was in use from the first half of the fifteenth century until 1787; the oldest surviving stone, of Avigdor Kara, is dated 1439. Because the ground could not be enlarged, new soil was laid over old graves and the stones raised to the surface, so that in places the dead lie in many layers.

Among those buried here are figures of the golden age of Prague Jewry around 1600: Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the Maharal, who died in 1609 and whose Renaissance tomb is still a place of pilgrimage; Mordecai Maisel; the chronicler and astronomer David Gans, who worked with Tycho Brahe; and the Chief Rabbi David Oppenheim, whose great library is now at Oxford.

The stones reward slow attention. Many carry symbols as well as Hebrew inscriptions: blessing hands for the descendants of the priestly Kohanim, a jug for Levites, a crown for learning, grapes for plenty, and animals that play on family names โ€” a lion for Loew, a deer for Hirsch. Most inscriptions end with the same five letters, a formula asking that the soul be bound in the bond of life. The cemetery is administered by the Jewish Museum in Prague and is visited as part of its circuit of the old Jewish Town.

Getting there

The cemetery is in Prague's Old Town, in the former Jewish quarter of Josefov; the visitors' entrance is at ล irokรก 3, Prague 1. Vรกclav Havel Airport Prague (PRG) is about 11 km away.

Plan your visit

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Nearby places

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Prague 14The Most Beautiful Places in the Czech Republic 32The Most Beautiful Sacred Places in the Czech Republic 9The Most Beautiful Cemeteries 26The Most Beautiful Sacred Places 623

From the encyclopaedia

The Old Jewish Cemetery is a Jewish cemetery in Prague, Czech Republic, which is one of the largest of its kind in Europe and one of the most important Jewish historical monuments in Prague. It served its purpose from the first half of the 15th century until 1786. Renowned personalities of the local Jewish community were buried here; among them rabbi Jehuda Liva ben Becalel โ€“ Maharal, businessman Mordecai Meisel (1528โ€“1601), historian David Gans and rabbi David Oppenheim (1664โ€“1736). Today the cemetery is administered by the Jewish Museum in Prague.

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