Guide to all 9 Jewish cemeteries in Prague + history and practical visiting tips

My travel guide to all 9 Jewish cemeteries in Prague, including history and practical visiting tips.

Over the centuries, there have been several Jewish cemeteries in Prague, some of which are still used for burying the deceased today. The two most famous Jewish cemeteries in Prague are the Old Jewish Cemetery in the Josefov district and the New Jewish Cemetery in the Olšany district of Prague 10.

Over the last few years, I’ve visited all the Jewish Cemeteries in Prague and it’s been certainly an interesting journey into Jewish history and traditions. I’ve listed all the nine Jewish Cemeteries in Prague in this guide and they are sort of in order of distance from the centre of Prague. Some, like the Uhrineves Cemetery are possibly best to visit as a half a day trip from Prague.

You probably know about the old Jewish cemetery in Josefov, right in the centre, but you might not be aware that there are other Jewish cemeteries in Prague and unlike the old cemetery, are free to enter.

How Jewish cemeteries developed in Prague

This might surprise you, but the oldest Jewish cemetery in Prague was not the well known Old Jewish Cemetery in Josefov, but a so called Jewish Garden in what is now Prague 1 New Town. This cemetery was founded at the beginning of the 13th century and at the time it was likely located outside the walls of the Old Town.

But for some reason in 1478, King Vladislaus II abolished this burial ground, and that is how the Old Jewish Cemetery in today’s Josefov was started. This cemetery was used until 1787 and is now one of the most famous Jewish cemeteries in Europe. Despite its small area (about 1 hectare), it contains more than 12,000 tombstones with the remains of approximately 100,000 people.

Which famous rabbi is buried in Prague?

This is the question, I get to ask a lot when my friends visit 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.

1. 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 the 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.

2. 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 Old Jewish Cemetery is the only one that you need to pay to see. You need to buy a combined ticket to Jewish Quarter synagogues as there is no separate ticket just for the cemetery. If you want to just have a look, you can peep through the entrance gate.

There is also a tiny window in the door which is on the other side of the cemetery – accessible from the main street as you walk from the Museum of Decorative Art towards the Law Faculty and the corner of Brezna Street. When I was a student at Charles University, we also had a great view of the whole cemetery from the ladies washrooms, which used to be at the back of the Faculty of Arts building. I remember I found it strangelly calming and spooky at the same time.

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

3. The New Jewish cemetery

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. When I visited last time in the summer I found the cemetery very quiet and peaceful with only a few people walking around.

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.

4. 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)

5. 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)

6. New Jewish Cemetery in Smichov

The New Jewish Cemetery in Smíchov is right next to the Malvazinky Cemetery and best access is from Peroutkova Street (near Urbanova Street). It was established in 1903 and was used sporadically until 1990. On an area of 6,205 square meters, approximately 800 tombstones have been preserved.

The eastern part is dominated by the Neo-Baroque tomb of Josef and Rosa Porges von Portheim. Next to it is another grave of the same family: Mathilde von Portheim, née Phillipp (1831–1909), and Gustav Portheim (1825–1916).

The Porges von Portheim were a wealthy family who for example owned the Portheimka Palace in Smichov (it’s now a gallery with a lovely cafe and a small park) or the Desfours Palace at Narodni Trida (owned by Prague Gas Company, but you can walk into the courtyard and visit the cafe or join the Prague Gas Company staff for a lunch, as there is also one of my favourite self-service canteens in Prague there).

I also found the graves of quite a few literary figures, for example, the German-speaking poet, translator, and lawyer Friedrich Adler (1857–1938) is buried here. In 1956, the urn of the poet and prose writer Rudolf Fuchs (1890–1942), who died in London exile during German bombing, was also placed here.

It’s sad, but after 1980, the cemetery was reduced by removing the northern part with children’s graves, and a new building for the Seventh-day Adventist Church prayer hall was constructed on the site of the ceremonial hall between 1982 and 1985. It was also reduced in the south, where it is now separated by a fence from a garden with a small house. A few monuments can still be seen along the original southern wall.

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 19th-century pretty townhouses, but it’s a bit steep in places.

7. Old Jewish Cemetery in Liben

The Old Jewish Cemetery in Libeň was established around the end of the 16th century and afterwards was expanded several times. It was located roughly in a triangle between the Libeň Bridge, the former Dolní Libeň railway station, and Vojenova Street.

Unfortunately, when you go there today, you will only see a grass area with an information display as nothing is left of this cemetery apart from a cemetery wall on one side.

Sadly, this Jewish cemetery became a typical victim of modern times when it first lost its southern part around 1875 due to the construction of the Dolní Libeň railway station.

The burials here ceased in 1892 when a new Jewish cemetery was established on Davídkova Street on the border of Libeň and Ďáblice.

Afterwards, the northern part was abolished in the second half of the 1920s during the construction of the eastern approach to the Libeň Bridge. This also involved the demolition of the ceremonial hall that stood in this part.

The final blow to the cemetery came in 1964-1965, when its largest part with valuable tombstones from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries was cleared as part of a local town planning.

Location: Palmovka Underground station (line B) or Palmovka tram stops. Walk towards the bridge over the Vltava River – the cemetery is part of a little park in between the tram tracks and railway buildings on the other side.

8. New Jewish Cemetery in Liben

The New Jewish Cemetery in Libeň is a lot further from the Old Cemetery, than I would have expected. You can find it on the border between Libeň and Kobylisy, between Střelničná Street and Na Malém klínu Street, near Davídkova Street.

The cemetery was established in 1892 or 1893, and the last burial took place there in 1975. Its original area was 6,460 square meters, but after World War II, it was reduced to only 4,184 square meters. Approximately 300 tombstones have been preserved on this site.

The area was originally entered through a ceremonial hall in the Neo-Romanesque style, which has since been converted into a hostel. The original gate has been preserved. The current entrance is from Na Malém klínu Street and if you find it closed, you can look through the gate to see the cemetery.

The Czech-Jewish writer Vojtěch Rakous, author of the humorous book “Modche a Rézi,” who traded in shoes in Libeň, is buried in the cemetery.

Location: Malém Klínu Street, Prague 8, Liben – nearest underground is Ladvi

9. Jewish Cemetery in Uhrineves

You can find the Jewish cemetery in Uhříněves on the northern edge of Uhříněves, on a marked tourist path that continues from Vachkova Street, about 800 meters northwest of New Square.

It was likely established in the first quarter of the 18th century and it is protected as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic.

On an area of 3,302 square meters, around 300 tombstones have been preserved. The oldest of them is dated 1719. Most of the tombstones date from the 18th and 19th centuries. They are predominantly made with sandstone with semi-circular tops and relief Hebrew inscriptions.

Many of the tombstones have traditional Jewish symbols such as blessing hands, pitchers, or lions. The newer part of the cemetery, with granite tombstones, was damaged by tombstone thieves in the 1970s. At the entrance to the cemetery stands an old cemetery house and an old mortuary, which was once decorated with wall paintings. Like in most towns in Bohemia, the Jewish community in Uhříněves ceased to exist in 1940.

I also found out that in 2000, a delegation from the reform synagogue in Finchley, which had been loaned a Torah scroll from the Uhříněves synagogue, planted a memorial oak tree at the cemetery along with a plaque “in memory of the residents of Uhříněves who perished during the Holocaust.”

Location: U Židovského hřbitova Street, Prague-Uhříněves – this cemetery is well outside the centre of Prague, but there are regular town buses (Prague public transport tickets are valid on this journey, within the time limit).

This blog post was originally written on 10 October 2024 and last updated on 10 October 2024

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