The complete guide to 10 historic cemeteries in Prague for 2024, inc. Jewish Cemeteries, locations, opening times, history, famous people, interesting facts.
Prague is an amazing city steeped in history and culture, and the cemeteries are no exception. From the melancholy beauty of the Olsany Cemetery, with its two million buried, including significant figures of Czech history, to the retreats of art and history at the Lesser Town Cemetery and poignant yet mystical like Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague’s cemeteries offer a unique glimpse into the city’s past.
There are around 30 cemeteries maintained by the city, but I’ve picked my ten favourite cemeteries for us to explore today.
Why visit Prague cemeteries
I know that visiting cemeteries might not be on everyone’s list when they are planning a trip to Prague, but I think they are a great way to learn about history, link all the people you’ve learned about in the books and also find a bit of piece and quiet in a busy town.
When I visited the Vysehrad cemetery, it was during a very cold, but sunny day and somehow it felt like a privilege to walk around. I visited Olsany Cemetery during a Prague summer heatwave and it was lovely to walk for two to tree hours under a cover of large trees, whilst trying to find the most significant tombstones.
What is the most beautiful cemetery in Prague?
I think that the old part of the Olsany Cemetery, Lesser Town Cemetery (at Smichov) and the Vysehrad are the best examples of old historic cemeteries which are worth visiting. Olsany and the Lesser Town Cemetery have trees shading the tooms and all the cemeteries have historic graves, and beautiful tombstones.
What is the largest cemetery in Prague?
The largest cemetery in Prague is Olsany Cemetery, which spreads over 50 acres and it’s even divided by a road with a tram running through it. The cemetery has several parts – old, new, orthodox and also dedicated soldiers’ cemetery.
Once you walk through the Olsany Cemetery, you can continue to the New Jewish Cemetery, which is right next to it and then on to the Vinohrady Cemetery, which is just across the road.
Which famous rabbi is buried in Prague?
The most important person buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery is the great religious scholar and teacher Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, known as Rabbi Löw (d. 1609), who, according to a legend, created a Golem – a person from clay to help him to carry out manual tasks around the house.
The Golem was activated by putting a scroll inside a little hole in his forehead and once Rabbi Low forgot to take the scroll out when he went to do the service at the synagogue. The Golem finished his given tasks and then didn’t know what to do next, so he started to destroy everything around him.
Rabbi Low rushed out of the synagogue and managed to take the scroll out of the Golem’s head and stop him. Afterwards, the Rabbi never activated the Golem again and locked him in the loft of a synagogue.
Few things to know before you visit a cemetery
Apart from the Old Jewish Cemetery, all of the other cemeteries on my list are free to enter. There are usually set visiting hours, but most cemeteries are open during the day and the large ones, such as Olsany also at the weekend.
If you are visiting any Jewish cemetery, you should have your head covered if you are a man. And of course, please respect what these places are about, so please no loud talking, shouting, running, picnicking or smoking.
Olsany Cemetery
The largest cemetery in Prague is the Olsany Cemetery. It’s very peaceful there and the old part of the cemetery has some amazing headstones set amongst tall trees, woodland shrubs and grassy paths. I’ve spent a good couple of hours walking around all the different parts of the cemetery and I’ve still not seen everything. One other thing you might see there and very much alive are red squirrels as they hop between the graves.
The Olsany cemetery is the largest burial ground in Prague, covering fifty hectares. The oldest part, Cemetery No. 1, was founded after 1679 on the site of a large garden that its owner, Jakub Štika from the Olšany village, sold to the Old Town community so that they could bury victims of the plague there.
Along with the plague cemetery, a chapel was also built and dedicated to the saint patrons St. Roch, St. Sebastian, and St. Rosalia to protect people against the plague.
In addition to ordinary citizens, many important figures of social and cultural life are buried at the Olsany cemetery. There is an educational trail and display boards that take you through the most important parts of the cemetery, but you can also just wander around and the most important graves are marked with little introduction text.
You can visit the graves of Josef Jungmann (writer), František Čelakovský (writer), playwright Ladislav Stroupežnický, mathematician Bernard Bolzano, Josef Lada (illustrator), Jaroslav Ježek (musician), or Voskovec and Werich (comedy partners, actors & playwright).
Once you cross the main road to the newer part of the cemetery, you can also walk through the orthodox part of the cemetery with a beautifully painted chapel. The other side of this part of the cemetery is dedicated to soldiers who died fighting in the First and Second World Wars.
Location: Vinohradská 1835/153, 130 00 Prague 3, Zizkov
How to get there: One option is to take tram number 5, 9, or 26 to the Lipanská stop, which is located near the cemetery. Another option is to take underground line A to the Želivského stop, which is also located near the cemetery.
Vinohrady Cemetery
Vinohrady Cemetery, which is just across the street from Olsany Cemetery, was established in 1885. This cemetery is used as the final resting place for many important Czechs, including painter Jakub Schikaneder, sculptor Otto Gutfreund, poet Stanislav Kostka Neumann, and writers Karel Václav Rais and Zikmund Winter, among others. You can also find the family tomb of ex-president Vaclav Havel here. He was the first president after the Velvet Revolution in 1989.
Location: Prague 10, the Vinohrady Cemetery (Vinohradský hřbitov)
How to get there: underground (metro A) to the stop Želivského or tram 11, 19, or 26 to Vinohradské hřbitovy.
The Lesser Town Cemetery
The name of the cemetery is pretty misleading as it is not located in Lesser Town. The reason for this is that after a change in burial practices during the reign of Joseph II, cemeteries around churches were abolished, and for hygiene reasons, it was permitted to establish cemeteries only outside the city walls.
This is why in 1786, a new cemetery was established on the site of the former plague burial ground, intended for the Lesser Town, Hradčany, Smíchov, and Košíře. At that time, it was surrounded by only a few farm buildings with vineyards. The industrial development of Smíchov, especially the establishment of the Ringhoffer factory in 1852, influenced the growth of residential buildings, which gradually surrounded the cemetery.
In 1884, almost 100 years after its establishment, the last burial took place. Many of the graves were abolished, and tombstones and remains of the deceased were relocated to other cemeteries, especially to the Olšany Cemetery and Vyšehrad. This was also done because Plzenska Street was being widened and a part of the cemetery together with the graves and a small part of the church had to go.
It feels very strange to know that when I walk on the pavement next to the cemetery, I’m actually walking over the old graves, including that of Karel Jaromir Erben!
Location: Plzeňská, 150 00 Praha 5-Smíchov
How to get there: The cemetery is outside tram stop called ‘Bertramka’, which is one stop from Andel (underground and tram station), tram numbers 9, 10, 15, 16
The Old Jewish Cemetery
The Old Jewish Cemetery covers an area of approximately 11,000 m2 and people were still buried here until 1787. There are about 12,000 tombstones and it’s estimated that around 40,000 were buried here.
The oldest tombstone was engraved in 1439 and belongs to scholar and poet Avigdor Karo. The cemetery has been expanded several times in the past, but at some point, it couldn’t be expanded further, so the space problem was solved by adding layers of soil on top of existing graves. It’s estimated that there could be up to 12 burial layers on top of each other in the cemetery. Picturesque clusters of tombstones from different periods were created by raising older tombstones to the upper layers.
The most significant person buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery is undoubtedly the great religious scholar and pedagogue Rabbi Jehuda Liwa ben Becalel, known as Rabbi Löew (died in 1609), whose figure is also associated with the legend of creating an artificial being – the golem.
However, there are also many other well-known Jewish personalities buried here, such as the primate of the Jewish city Mordechai Maisel (died in 1601), Renaissance scholar, historian, mathematician, and astronomer David Gans (died in 1613), scientist and polymath Josef Šalom Delmedig (died in 1655), and Rabbi and collector of Hebrew manuscripts and prints David Oppenheim (died in 1736).
Location: U Starého Hřbitova 243/3A, 110 00 , Prague 1, Josefov
How to get there: 5 minutes walk from the Old Town Square, nearest underground is Staromestska and trams number 1, 18, 17, 2, 25
The New Jewish cemetery
You probably know about the old Jewish cemetery in Josefov, right in the centre of Prague, but you might not be aware that there are three other important Jewish cemeteries in Prague that are also important in Jewish history and unlike the old cemetery, are free to enter.
If you are visiting the Zizkov TV tower, you might notice the old Jewish cemetery, which is easily visible from behind the fence. When this cemetery became too crowded in 1890 the new Jewish cemetery was founded.
The New Jewish Cemetery is a separate part of the Olšany Cemetery and is the largest Jewish cemetery in the Czech Republic. It’s also protected as a cultural monument.
The new cemetery is ten times larger than the Old Jewish Cemetery in Josefov (in the centre of Prague) and is the main Jewish cemetery in Prague – a resting place for more than 25,000 people.
You walk into the cemetery through a very impressive entrance gate. The buildings inside are mostly built in the Neo-Renaissance style. These include the ceremonial hall designed by architect Bedřich Münzberger with a prayer room, a purification house for funeral ceremonies, and administrative buildings. The original ceremonial hall was built between 1891 and 1893. The second ceremonial hall, was built in 1933 in the functionalist style based on the design of architect Leopold Ehrmann.
Each cemetery field is dedicated to certain groups of people. In the centre of the cemetery, there is a field dedicated to workers of Jewish religious communities. Here you will find the fields of significant rabbis, the Patria Memorial – a vanished Lower Kralovice community, and the Memorial to the Victims of World War I from 1926. Large family tombs, such as those of the Petschek, Waldes, and Bondy families, are located along the eastern wall.
The tombstones are in various styles (Neo-Gothic, Art Nouveau, or Classicism) and often come from the workshops of significant Czech sculptors and architects such as Jan Kotěra, Josef Zasch, Josef Fanta, Jan Štursa, or Čeněk Vosmík.
There is also a memorial to Czechoslovak Jewish victims of the Holocaust and resistance from 1985. You should not miss the grave of Prague’s Jewish writer Franz Kafka. On the opposite wall, there is a memorial plaque for Kafka’s friend Max Brod, who is buried in Israel. The cemetery is also the final resting place of writer Ota Pavel, Jiří Orten, and painters Jiří Karas and Max.
Location: Izraelska Street 1, Prague 10
How to get there: take the tram number 9 or 10 from the centre of Prague (about 25 minutes) or underground to station ‘Zelivskeho’ – the cemetery is just outside the underground station.
Old Jewish Cemetery – Zizkov
The cemetery was founded in 1680 during a major plague epidemic as a burial ground for the Prague Jewish community. During the 10-month epidemic, about 3,000 people from the Prague ghetto were buried there. Additional burials took place during the plague epidemic of 1713-1714, during wartime events in 1742-1743, and during the exodus of Jews from Prague in 1747-1750.
When Emperor Joseph II banned “burials in old cemeteries inside city centres for hygienic reasons” in 1787, this local cemetery in Zizkov became the central Jewish cemetery in Prague. Because of that the cemetery had to be expanded.
The first expansion took place in 1787, and another in 1855. During this time the cemetery grew from its original 427 m2 to almost five times its size, doubling the area of the old Jewish cemetery in Josefov in central Prague. In 1884, when the Žižkov community banned further burials, the cemetery covered an area between 21,601 and 28,000 m2.
The burials were officially stopped, but they were not discontinued until the end of June 1890, when the New Jewish Cemetery at Olšany was ready to take over. By then a total of 37,800 people were buried here.
In the 1960s the town council decided to turn the cemetery into a park as they built new housing around the area. At that time a large part of the cemetery wall was demolished, tombstones were overturned and buried with soil, and about three-quarters of the cemetery was converted into a public park – Mahlerovy sady.
Only the oldest part of the cemetery with the most valuable tombstones was preserved. Part of the cemetery was irreversibly devastated between 1985 and 1986 during the excavation of the foundations for the construction of the Žižkov Tower. During the construction, graves and tombstones were destroyed and removed to a landfill, which went against the previous agreement between the Prague Jewish community and town council monument conservators. Some of the remains were relocated to the New Jewish Cemetery in Olšany.
After 1999, the area underwent reconstruction and the cemetery was opened to the public at the end of 2001. The opening hours are currently three days a week and the entrance is free. You can also see most of the cemetery from beyond the iron fence, if you arrive and the gates are closed.
Location: Fibichova 2818, 130 00 Prague 3-Žižkov
How to get there: the nearest underground station is Jiriho z Podebrad and then about 15 minutes walk. Nearest tram stop (which is still about 10 minutes walk) is Olsanske Namesti on tram lines 1, 5, 9, 15, 17 or trams that go to Jiriho z Podebrad (tram line 1, 11, 13)
Old Jewish Cemetery – Smichov
The Old Jewish Cemetery in Smíchov, also known as the Radlice Cemetery, was founded in 1788 due to a lack of space for burials at the cemetery in Prague’s Jewish Quarter.
On an area of 1531 square meters with an almost square ground plan, about 600 tombstones have been preserved, of which 422 are visible. These are tombstones of baroque, neo-Gothic, classicist, and modern types. The youngest tombstone dates back to 1937. Among those buried here is, for example, the Smíchov Rabbi Dr. Samuel Beck (1841-1899). Most of the tombstones feature German verses typical of assimilated Jews at the end of the 19th century, with many also bearing traces of photographs of the deceased. Green glass was often used here as a decorative material for the tombstones.
This cemetery is open only by appointment, but you can glance over the fence if the gates are closed.
Location: U Starého židovského hřbitova 2556, 150 00 Prague 5-Smíchov
How to get there: take bus 231 from Na Knizeci (underground station Andel on the B-line) to stop Kesnerka. You can also walk from Malvazinky Cemetery as it’s in the same area and about 30 minutes walk (but you need to walk down the hill and back up another hilly area to get to the cemetery).
Malvazinky Cemetery
The Malvazinky Cemetery, also known as the Smíchov Cemetery, is a large urban cemetery located in the Smíchov district of Prague, named after the former estate “Na Malvazinkách”. It was founded in 1876, after the original Smíchov cemetery near the church on today’s Arbes Square was closed. Since 1884, the rapidly growing population of the Prague suburbs could no longer use the closed Lesser Town Cemetery in Smichov.
Malvazinky is quite a large cemetery (over 7,5 acres) and is the final resting place for many well-known Czech people, such as President Antonin Novotny, writer Ondrej Sekora, philosopher Egon Bondy, actor Ferenc Futurista and Eman Fiala, footballer Frantisek Vesely, businessman Josef Walter and also singer Karel Gott.
I also have a personal connection to Malvazinky cemetery as my grandfather and great grandfather who was fighting in the Italian Legion to help to establish the new Czechoslovakia during the first world war, are buried here.
Location: U Smíchovského hřbitova 1, 150 00 Prague 5
How to get there: Bus number 153 (to stop Smichovsky Hrbitov or 137 (to stop Urbanova) from Na Knizeci (underground station Andel on the B line). There is also a nice walk from Andel through parks and 19 century pretty town houses, but it’s a bit steep in places.
Vysehrad Cemetery
The Vyšehrad Cemetery is right next to the Basilica of St Paul and St. Peter at the Vysehrad Castle grounds and park area. It was properly established in 1869 and is the final resting place of many important Czech people, including writers, artists, composers, scientists, politicians, and other prominent figures.
The cemetery was built on the site of an older cemetery that had been in use since the 13th century. The new cemetery was designed by Antonín Wiehl and Josef Mocker in the neo-Gothic style, and it quickly became the most prestigious cemetery in Prague, where many of the city’s elite were buried.
The cemetery has over 600 graves, including those of famous Czech figures such as Antonín Dvořák (composer), Bedřich Smetana (composer), Karel Čapek (writer), Karel Hynek Macha (Writer), Jan Neruda (Writer), Mikolas Ales (painter), Ema Destinnova (opera singer), Antonin B. Svojsik (founder of Czech Scouts), Waldemar Matuska (popular singer of 60 & 70s ), Josef Gocar (architect) and Alphonse Mucha (painter). The graves are arranged in a park-like setting, with paths winding through the trees and around the graves.
When you visit, don’t miss the Slavín tomb, which is a large, imposing tomb built in 1893 to honour Czech cultural figures. The tomb is located at the highest point in the cemetery and is accessible by a grand staircase. The tomb is a group resting place of many important Czech figures, including the composer Bedřich Smetana and the writer Karel Čapek.
Location: V Pevnosti, 128 00 Prague 2-Vyšehrad
How to get there: Take trams 3 or 17 to Vyton and walk up to the Vysehrad (10-15 minutes – steep walk) or use the underground to station ‘Vysehrad’ and then walk 10-15 minutes (level walk)
Jewish Garden Cemetery
The Jewish Garden is a little bit different from the other cemeteries on this list. When you visit today, you’ll only see a memorial in a shape of Jewish tombstones and you can walk through a building courtyard to see where the cemetery used to be.
The Jewish Garden is the name of the second oldest Jewish cemetery in Prague. The cemetery was located in the New Town of Prague between today’s streets of Spálená, Purkyňova, Jungmannova, and Lazarská.
People were buried in this cemetery from at least 1254 until 1478, when this area was divided by Vladislavova Street and turned into building plots. Today, the entire cemetery is built on or paved over.
Between 1900-1920, the first Jewish tombstones were found during construction work for houses in Vladislavova Street. Five fragments of stone tombstones were found and are now stored in the Lapidiary of the National Museum in Prague.
Between 1978-1980, houses in the southern part of Vladislavova Street (house numbers 73/II), Charvátova Street (house number 1404/II), and Purkyňova Street (house number 56/II) were demolished before the construction of the metro and more graves and tombstones were found at that time.
In 1997 further archaeological work was carried out because Czech Insurance Company wanted to build underground garages under houses numbered 76/II and 1350/II on Vladislavova Street.
During the survey around 400 Hebrew tombstones and graves were found in the area. In 2000, however, archaeological work was terminated because Jewish communities felt that the graves shouldn’t be disturbed. The underground space of the Jewish Garden was declared a cultural monument, and the graves that were left in place were provided with a concrete sarcophagus.
In September 2016, a memorial in the shape of medieval Jewish gravestones was installed by the Prague Jewish community to commemorate the place of the oldest Jewish cemetery.
Location: Vladislavova Street, Prague 1, New Town
How to get there: The Jewish Garden is within walkable distance from the Old Town Square (about 15 minutes) and the memorial is located in the same square as the Kafka’s Rotating Head Sculpture, just behind the shopping centre at Narodni Trida – underground station (line B) or trams number 9, 22, 2 etc.
This blog post was originally written on 5 July 2023 and last updated on 5 July 2023
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