Olšany Cemetery

Olšany Cemetery
Olšany Cemetery
Olšanské hřbitovy
	Olšany Cemetery in winter
Details
Established	1680
Location	Prague
Country	Czech Republic
Coordinates	50°04′50″N 14°28′14″E / 50.080556°N 14.470556°E
Type	Public
Style	Art Nouveau
No. of graves	65,000
Find a Grave	Olšany Cemetery

Olšany Cemeteries (Czech: Olšanské hřbitovy, German: Wolschaner Friedhof) is the largest graveyard in Prague, Czech Republic, once laid out for as many as two million burials. The graveyard is particularly noted for its many remarkable Art Nouveau monuments.^[1]

History

The Olšany Cemeteries were created in 1680 to accommodate

Emperor Joseph II banned the burial of bodies within Prague city limits and Olšany Cemeteries were declared the central graveyard for hygiene purposes.^[2]

The Olšany

British, Canadian, South African, Greek and Turkish Cypriot and Polish) armed forces who died for the freedom of Czechoslovakia in 1944–1945, including POWs. Based on a bilateral agreement, Czech authorities are responsible for the protection of Russian and Soviet military graves at the Czech territory (as the Russian Federation is responsible for protecting Czechoslovak war graves from both World Wars in Russia). The Commonwealth Prague War Cemetery, including 256 graves, was established under the terms of the 1949 War Graves Agreement between the UK and Czechoslovakia and is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. [1]

There are two ceremonial halls assigned to bid farewell to the deceased; the newer one is located in a building of the Prague's first

Slavín, being the biggest necropolis in the Czech Republic.^[3]

Till this day there is evidence of 230,000 people buried, 65,000 grave sites, 200 chapel graves and six columbariums in Olšany Cemeteries.^[4]

Famous burials

Many well-known people are buried at Olšany Cemeteries, including:

Writers, artists and actors

Bernard Bolzano (1781–1848), mathematician
Karel Havlíček Borovský (1821–1856), writer
Jaroslav Čermák (1831–1878), painter
Viktor Dyk (1877–1931), writer and conservative politician
Karel Jaromír Erben (1811–1870), writer
Rudolf Hrušínský (1920–1994), actor
Václav Kliment Klicpera (1792–1859), playwright
Ján Kollár (1793–1852), Slovak Lutheran pastor, philologist and writer
Josef Lada (1887–1957), artist and writer
Viktor Oliva (1861–1928), artist
Ossi Oswalda (1897–1947), German actress in silent film
Jan Rejsa (1886–1971), artist, editor, and writer
Pavel Jozef Šafárik (1795–1861), Slovak philologist and historian
Antonín Slavíček (1870–1910), painter
Ladislav Stroupežnický (1850–1892), playwright
Jan Erazim Vocel (1803–1871), poet, archaeologist, historian and cultural revivalist
Jiří Voskovec
(1905–1981), actor and playwright
Jan Werich (1905–1980), actor
Vladimír Menšík (1929–1988), actor and comedian

Politicians

Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia
(November 1918 – July 1919) and his Russian wife Nadezhda (1862–1936) are buried in the crypt of the Dormition Church (Chrám Zesnutí přesvaté Bohorodice) in the Orthodox section of the cemetery
Munich Crisis (September–December 1938), as well as acting president following the resignation of Edvard Beneš

Czechoslovak Legions in World War I and the Russian Civil War; later one of the founders of the fascist (yet anti-German) National Fascist Community
and member of the Czechoslovakian Parliament

President of Czechoslovakia (1948–1953); his body was originally displayed in a mausoleum at the site of the Jan Žižka monument. In 1962 the body was cremated, the ashes returned to the Žižka Monument and placed in a sarcophagus. In 1990, Gottwald's ashes were moved to Olšany Cemetery, together with the ashes of about 20 other communist leaders which had also originally been placed in the Žižka Monument.^[5]