Olšany Cemetery (, ) is a graveyard in Prague, Czech Republic. With an area of more than , it is the largest cemetery in the country. Since it was founded in 1680, around two million people have been buried here.
There are many architecturally valuable tombstones here, the most significant of which are those in the Art Nouveau style. The most valuable part is the honorary burial grounds of Allied armies and freedom fighters, which is protected as a national cultural monument.
Location and organisation
The Olšany Cemetery has an area of , making it the largest graveyard in the Czech Republic. It is located in the southern part of the Žižkov district of Prague.
The cemetery is divided into two main parts by Želivského Street, and these two parts are internally divided into several parts as the cemetery grew. Therefore, the cemetery is often referred to in the plural and its official Czech name is also in the plural. The western part is called Olšanské hřbitovy I. ('Olšany Cemeteries I') and is the main part of the cemetery, containing the fabrica ecclesiae cemeteries numbered II–IX and the Municipal Cemetery I. The eastern part is called Olšanské hřbitovy II. ('Olšany Cemeteries II') and contains the New Jewish Cemetery (the largest Jewish cemetery in the Czech Republic; forms a separate part of the Olšany Cemetery), the cemetery numbered X and the Municipal Cemetery II, which includes honorary burial grounds, an Orthodox section and a small Muslim section. Both main parts are surrounded by a wall, and only Cemetery I (the oldest part of the cemetery) is located outside the fenced cemetery in the northwestern part of the Olšany Cemetery.
The Olšany Cemetery contains approximately 25,000 tombs, 200 chapel tombs, 65,000 grave sites, 20,000 urn graves, six columbariums and two scattering meadows. It is estimated that two million people were buried here during the cemetery's existence.
History
The Olšany Cemetery were created in 1680 to accommodate Great Plague victims who died en masse in Prague and needed to be buried quickly. At that time, the cemetery was located outside the city. In 1787, when the plague again struck the city, Emperor Joseph II banned the burial of bodies within Prague city limits and Olšany Cemetery were declared the central graveyard for hygiene purposes. The cemetery was expanded in several stages and new burial fields were established, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries. The original location from 1680 (Cemetery I) ceased to be used in 1860. The Municipal Cemetery I was established in 1900 and the Municipal Cemetery II was established in 1917.
Since 1958, the entire cemetery is protected as a cultural monument. Since 1978, the honorary burial grounds of Allied armies and freedom fighters are protected as a national cultural monument.
Honorary burial grounds
Among the thousands of military personnel buried at Olšany Cemetery, there are Russian soldiers and officers from the Napoleonic Wars, members of the Czechoslovak Legion, Czechoslovak soldiers, officers and pilots who fought at the Eastern and Western Front and in North Africa during World War II as well as male and female members of the Soviet and Commonwealth (including 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 Russia 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 United Kingdom and Czechoslovakia and is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Buildings and monuments
There are two ceremonial halls. The first one, called Old Ceremonial Hall, was built in 1894 on the Cemetery VI part of the Olšany Cemetery. The second one, New Ceremonial Hall on the Municipal Cemetery I, is a neo-Renaissance building from 1921.
Next to the Orthodox section of the cemetery is the Church of the Dormition. It was built in 1924–1925. The painted decoration of the church interior was designed by Ivan Bilibin.
There are many tombstones that are architecturally valuable, and tombs with valuable sculptural decoration. They were decorated by leading Czech artists and represent the development of Czech figurative sculpture from the end of the 18th century to the present day. Among the most significant are those in the Art Nouveau style.
The Olšany Cemeteries Educational Trail leads through the cemetery. It is mapping the history of three of the oldest sections, also sketching the life stories of some celebrities buried here.
Notable interments
Notable people buried at Olšany Cemetery (excluding New Jewish Cemetery) include:
Politics and military
Josef Barák (1833–1883), politician, journalist and poet Richard Bienert (1881–1949), politician, prime minister of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia Vladimir Boyarsky (1901–1945), Russian military officer Hermann, Freiherr Dahlen von Orlaburg (1828–1887), Austrian administrator Josip Filipović (1819–1889), Croatian military leader Gusta Fučíková (1903–1987), politician and activist Radola Gajda (1892–1948), military leader and politician Klement Gottwald (1896–1953), politician, President of Czechoslovakia Tamaš Hryb (1895–1938), Belarusian politician, journalist and writer Antonín Janoušek (1877–1941), politician and journalist Charles Jonas (1840–1896), politician, journalist and linguist Karel Klapálek (1893–1984), military leader Karel Kramář (1860–1937), politician, Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia Pyotra Krecheuski (1879–1928), Belarusian statesman Karel Kutlvašr (1895–1961), military leader Matija Majar (1809–1892), Slovenian priest and political activist Vojtěch Mastný (1874–1954), lawyer and diplomat Jaroslava Moserová (1930–2006), politician, diplomat and translator Antonín Němec (1858–1926), politician and journalist Václav Nosek (1892–1955), politician Rudolf Pernický (1915–2005), military leader Eliška Purkyňová (1868–1933), politician Karel Sladkovský (1823–1880), lawyer, politician and journalist Josef Smrkovský (1911–1974), politician Antonín Sochor (1914–1950), military leader Jan Syrový (1888–1970), military leader and politician, Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia Alois Vocásek (1896–2003), soldier Pavel Vranský (1921–2018), military leader Bohuslav Vrbenský (1882–1944), politician Vasil Zacharka (1877–1943), Belarusian politician and activist Ladislav Zápotocký (1852–1916), politician and journalist
Science and academia
Nicolai Ivanovich Andrusov (1861–1924), Russian geologist and palaeontologist Anna Bayerová (1853–1924), physician Bernard Bolzano (1781–1848), mathematician Ivan Borkovský (1897–1976), archaeologist Josef Božek (1782–1835), engineer and inventor Bohumil Bydžovský (1880–1969), mathematician Ladislav Josef Čelakovský (1834–1902), botanist Jindřich Chalupecký (1910–1990), art theorist, literary theorist and art historian Pavel Eisner (1889–1958), linguist and translator Antonín Frič (1832–1913), paleontologist, biologist and geologist Václav Frič (1839–1916), naturalist and natural history dealer Anton Gindely (1829–1892), historian Jaroslav Goll (1846–1929), historian, writer and educator Eduard Gundling (1819–1905), lawyer Ignác Jan Hanuš (1812–1869), philosopher and librarian Ladislav Haškovec (1866–1944), neuropsychiatrist Bohuslav Havránek (1893–1978), philologist and Slavist Bohuslav Hostinský (1884–1951), mathematician and physicist Otakar Hostinský (1847–1910), historian and musicologist Jiří Janda (1865–1938), ornithologist Antonín Jan Jungmann (1775–1854), physician and educator Josef Jungmann (1773–1847), linguist and poet Josef Kalousek (1838–1915), historian Napoleon Manuel Kheil (1849–1923), entomologist Karl Kořistka (1825–1906), geographer, cartographer and mathematician Julius Vincenz von Krombholz (1782–1843), physician and mycologist Bohumil Kučera (1874–1921), physicist Ivan Ivanovich Lapshin (1870–1952), Russian philosopher and publicist Václav Láska (1862–1943), geodesist, astronomer, geophysicist and mathematician Vincenc Lesný (1882–1953), research scholar of Indology and Iranian studies František Lexa (1876–1960), Egyptologist Zdeněk Matějka (1937–2006), chemist Karel Maydl (1853–1903), surgeon František Antonín Nickerl (1813–1871), entomologist Lubor Niederle (1865–1944), archeologist and anthropologist Pavel Novgorodtsev (1866–1924), Russian lawyer and philosopher Bedřich Procházka (1855–1934), mathematician Josef Reinsberg (1844–1930), physician Antonín Rezek (1853–1909), historian František Vilém Rosický (1847–1909), botanist and zoologist Karel Rychlík (1885–1968), mathematician Pavel Jozef Šafárik (1795–1861), Slovak philologist and historian Vojtěch Šafařík (1829–1902), chemist August Seydler (1849–1891), astronomer and physicist Jiřina Šiklová (1935–2021), sociologist Vladislav Šír (1830–1889), ornithologist František Smotlacha (1884–1956), mycologist Miroslav Smotlacha (1920–2007), mycologist František Josef Studnička (1836–1903), mathematician and meteorologist Viktor Trkal (1888–1956), physicist Renáta Tyršová (1854–1937), ethnographer and art historian Jan Erazim Vocel (1803–1871), archaeologist, historian and poet Stanislav Vydra (1741–1804), mathematician and writer Eduard Weyr (1852–1903), mathematician Václav Zenger (1830–1908), physicist and meteorologist
Sports
Babeta Dražková (1905–1988), swimmer Jan Fleischmann (1885–1939), ice hockey player Miloslav Fleischmann (1886–1955), ice hockey player Jindřich Fügner (1822–1865), sports administrator Vilém Goppold von Lobsdorf (1869–1943), fencer Jiří Stanislav Guth-Jarkovský (1861–1943), sports administrator Ivan Hlinka (1950–2004), ice hockey player and coach Johnny Madden (1865–1948), Scottish football player and manager František Plánička (1904–1996), footballer Jaroslav Řezáč (1886–1974), ice hockey player Pavel Roman (1943–1972), figure skater Věra Suková (1931–1982), tennis player Miroslav Tyrš (1832–1884), philosopher and sports organizer
Arts
Language arts
Milada Blekastad (1917–2003), literary historian and translator Alois Bohdan Brixius (1903–1959), traveller, orientalist and travel writer František Čelakovský (1799–1852), writer and translator Evgeny Chirikov (1864–1932), Russian writer and playwright Viktor Dyk (1877–1931), poet, writer and politician Karel Jaromír Erben (1811–1870), writer and poet Ladislav Fuks (1923–1994), writer Bohumila Grögerová (1921–2014), poet and translator Zdenka Hásková (1878–1946), journalist and writer Jiří Haussmann (1898–1923), writer Karel Havlíček Borovský (1821–1856), writer and journalist Adolf Hoffmeister (1902–1973), writer and publicist Vladimír Holan (1905–1980), poet Josefa Humpalová–Zeman (1870–1906), journalist, newspaper founder and feminist Michael Kácha (1874–1940), anarchist, journalist and publisher Ján Kollár (1793–1852), Slovak poet and writer Václav Matěj Kramerius (1753–1808), publisher, journalist and writer Eliška Krásnohorská (1847–1926), writer and feminist Anna Lauermannová-Mikšová (1852–1932), writer Marie Majerová (1882–1967), writer and translator Jakub Malý (1811–1885), historian, writer and journalist Vilém Mathesius (1882–1945), linguist and literary historian Rudolf Medek (1890–1940), poet and military leader Vasily Nemirovich-Danchenko (1845–1936), Russian writer Stanislav Kostka Neumann (1875–1947), poet and translator Teréza Nováková (1853–1912), writer, feminist and ethnographer Sofie Podlipská (1833–1897), writer Anna Řeháková (1850–1937), teacher, translator and writer Eliška Řeháková (1846–1916), teacher, translator and journalist Jan Rejsa (1886–1971), poet, writer and editor Karel Sabina (1813–1877), writer and journalist Hugo Salus (1866–1929), writer, poet and physician