Olšany Cemetery

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

Olšany Cemeteries(Czech:Olšanské hřbitovy,‹See Tfd›German:Wolschaner Friedhof) is the largest graveyard inPrague,Czech Republic,once laid out for as many as two million burials. The graveyard is particularly noted for its many remarkableArt Nouveaumonuments.

History

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

The Olšanynecropolisconsists of twelve cemeteries, including anOrthodoxand a tiny Muslim section, thelargest Jewish cemetery in the Czech Republicand military burial grounds. Among the thousands of military personnel buried at Olšany, there are Russian soldiers and officers from theNapoleonic Wars,members of theCzechoslovak Legion,Czechoslovak soldiers, officers and pilots who fought at the Eastern and Western Front and inNorth Africaduring theSecond World Waras well as male and female members of theSovietandCommonwealth(includingBritish,Canadian,South African,Greek and Turkish CypriotandPolish) armed forces who died for the freedom of Czechoslovakia in 1944–1945, includingPOWs.Based on a bilateral agreement,Czech authoritiesare 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 theCommonwealth 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 firstcrematorium.New to the scene is the "Olšany Cemeteries Learning Trail" which is so far mapping the history of three of the oldest sections, also sketching the life stories of some celebrities buried here. Prague's Olšany cemeteries excel in their picturesque style and tranquil nooks, surpassing evenMalostranský cemeteryandSlavín,being the biggest necropolis in the Czech Republic.

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

Famous burials

Tomb ofAvgustyn Voloshyn,the first and only president ofCarpatho-Ukraine

Graves of British Commonwealth service personnel, Olšany Cemetery

Many well-known people areburiedat 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), SlovakLutheranpastor, philologist and writer
• Josef Lada(1887–1957), artist and writer
• Viktor Oliva(1861–1928), artist
• Ossi Oswalda(1897–1947), German actress insilent 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

• Karel Kramář(1860–1937), politician and firstPrime 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
• Jan Syrový(1888–1970), general and Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia during theMunich Crisis(September–December 1938), as well as acting president following the resignation ofEdvard Beneš
• Radola Gajda(1892–1948), military officer (and eventually general) with theCzechoslovak LegionsinWorld War Iand theRussian Civil War;later one of the founders of the fascist (yet anti-German)National Fascist Communityand member of the Czechoslovakian Parliament

Olšany Cemetery, grave of Czech Communist politicians whose urns had originally been kept at theNational Monument at Vítkov

• Klement Gottwald(1896–1953), communistPresident of Czechoslovakia(1948–1953); his body was originally displayed in amausoleumat theJan ŽižkaNational Monument at Vítkov.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 Jan Žižka National Monument (Gusta Fučiková,Marta Gottwaldová,Josef Haken,Jan Harus,Josef Hlavicka,Čeněk Hruška,Jiří František Chaloupecký,Antonín Janoušek,Josef Juran,Augustin Kliment,Václav Kopecký,Marie Majerová,Stefan Major,Václav Nosek,Bohuslav Novotný,Julie Prokopová,Antonín Sochor,Rudolf Strechaj,Josef Tesla,Rudolf Vetiska,Jan Vodička,Bohuslav VrbenskýandAntonín Zmrhal).
• Piotra Krecheuski(1879–1928), Belarusian statesman and president of theRadaof theBelarusian Democratic Republicin exile.
• Vasil Zacharka(1877–1943), Belarusian politician, activist, president of theRadaof theBelarusian Democratic Republicin exile.
• Svetozar Pribićević(1875–1936), was a Croatian Serb politician in Austria-Hungary.

Others

• Jan Palach(1948–1969), student who set himself on fire inWenceslas Square(Prague) as a protest against the 1968Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
• Pavel Roman(1943–1972), winner of four consecutive titles (1962, 1963, 1964, and 1965) inice dancingat theWorld Figure Skating Championshipswith his sister Eva
• Jake Madden(1865–1948), Scottish footballer and later Manager ofSK Slavia Prahafor 25 years

In popular culture

Part of the movieBad Companywas filmed in Olšany Cemeteries.

External links

• Cemetery details(in Czech)
• Olšany CemeteryatFind a Grave
• Olšany Cemetery(photo gallery)
• Transcripts of Headstones
• Photos of graves at Olšany[2],[3],[4]
• Photo gallery in 3-D
• CWGC: Prague (Olsany) Cemetery