St. Leonhard Cemetery

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The St. Leonhard Cemetery in Graz is located in the St. Leonhard district and belongs to the Roman Catholic parish Graz-St. Leonhard. The large cemetery is located in the south and east of the Leonhardkirche and contains numerous historically significant grave monuments.

history

Leonhard Church

The history of the St. Leonhard Cemetery goes back to the 15th century. With the inauguration of the Leonhard Church as a parish church in 1483, the establishment of its own parish cemetery is likely to have been connected, a cemetery near St. Leonhard is documented for the first time in 1468. This burial place extended directly around the Leonhard Church. At the beginning of the 19th century, burials in this churchyard were stopped and a new parish cemetery was created at the current location. The first part (section AI) of the new St. Leonhard parish cemetery was ceremoniously opened on November 26, 1817. A directory of the graves in the parish of St. Leonhard from 1827 lists 33 grave sites in the old churchyard and 43 in the new parish cemetery. The most important burial place in Graz at that time was the St. Peter cemetery, as numerous historical-topographical publications show.

In the course of the 19th century, the development of the St. Leonhard Cemetery was shaped by two opposing tendencies, namely the demands of the parish population for its expansion due to a lack of space on the one hand and demands of the City of Graz for its closure in favor of the new central cemetery on the other. The population of Graz grew rapidly, so planning a central cemetery outside the city made sense. There were also hygienic concerns, as the area around St. Leonhard was being built more and more. The constant influx required the first expansion of the St. Leonhard Cemetery (Section A II) in 1849, two further expansions (BI - B IV) followed in 1864 and 1878. At the same time, the Graz city council sought to close the church cemeteries in the city to which in addition to the St. Leonhard Cemetery also the St. Peter Cemetery, the Steinfeld Cemetery and the Calvary Cemetery were counted. According to the plans of the city council, the new central cemetery should serve as the sole burial place of Graz and therefore have an interdenominational character. The fiercely controversial "Grazer Friedhofsfrage" (Grazer Friedhofsfrage) could not be resolved until 1894 by selling the central cemetery to the Catholic parish , after which the city council did not pursue the abandonment of the church cemeteries.

Grave of Anna Baroness von John, widow of the Chief of Staff and Minister of War Franz von John (1815–1876), at St. Leonhard's cemetery

In the second half of the 19th century, the free space between Graz city center and St. Leonhard was opened up as a settlement area. Building activity began in the parish area and the previous suburban parish became an urban parish. Well-known personalities settled in the parish, including many university professors, aristocrats, retired military officials and high officials from all parts of the Habsburg Monarchy who spent their old age here. The proximity to today's Graz University Clinic was also noticeable when many doctors came to St. Leonhard. While large bourgeois houses were built along the connecting roads to Graz city center, the St. Leonhard Cemetery began to establish itself as a burial place for important personalities and early on became the city's celebrity cemetery. In 1853 the Feldzeugmeister Julius Freiherr von Haynau was buried here, in 1865 the historian Friedrich von Hurter , in 1872 Wilhelm von Tegetthoff , the victor of the sea ​​battle of Lissa , and in 1876 the diplomat and Orient researcher Anton Graf Prokesch von Osten , who built a large mausoleum through Theophil Hansen had erected on the St. Leonhard cemetery. Well-known local artists also created significant grave monuments, such as the sculptor Wilhelm Gösser , who is also buried here. Counts Brandis , Festetics , Herberstein and Künigl own family tombs, and numerous members of the Military Maria Theresa Order (MMTO) are buried in the St. Leonhard Cemetery.

The last enlargement of the St. Leonhard Cemetery (C-part) took place in 1962, which is also designed for urn graves and urn niches. In autumn 2012, a near-natural burial place with lawn and trees was created in the youngest part of the cemetery. The deceased from the Vinzi-Dorf for Graz homeless, led by Father Wolfgang Pucher , are buried in a communal grave.

Burials (selection)

photos

literature

  • Gerhard Kurzmann , Ottfried Hafner: Dead in Graz. Living Austrian history at the St. Leonhard Cemetery , Graz 1990
  • Guide to the resting places of the city of Graz , Graz 2004
  • Eugen Gross, Karin Derler: Cemetery guide of the Graz-St. Leonhard , published by the Economic Council of the Graz-St. Leonhard, Graz 2004

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kurzmann / Hafner, p. 11
  2. ↑ a b c d Origin of the St. Leonhard Cemetery (online) , website of the parish St. Leonhard , accessed on March 19, 2017
  3. ↑ Kurzmann / Hafner, p. 11
  4. ↑ Kurzmann / Hafner, p. 11
  5. ↑ Kurzmann / Hafner, p. 18
  6. ↑ For details, see Kurzmann / Hafner, pp. 11–16.
  7. ↑ a b c Art historically valuable grave monuments (online) , website of the parish of St. Leonhard , accessed on March 19, 2017
  8. ↑ Kurzmann / Hafner, p. 11
  9. ↑ Kurzmann / Hafner, p. 14
  10. ↑ Kurzmann / Hafner, p. 16
  11. ↑ Kurzmann / Hafner, pp. 19, 105-108
  12. ↑ Green burial of urns (online) , website of the parish of St. Leonhard , accessed on March 19, 2017
  13. ↑ Vinzi-Dorf: Unconditional commitment for the homeless. In: religion.orf.at. September 15, 2013, accessed November 1, 2018 .
  14. ↑ http://www.biographien.ac.at/oebl/oebl_M/Minutillo_Franz_1840_1916.xml
  15. ↑ http://www.biographien.ac.at/oebl/oebl_S_42/Succovaty-Vezza_Eduard_1839_1919.xml
  16. ↑ http://www.biographien.ac.at/oebl/oebl_S/Schoen_Josef_1863_1933.xml
  17. ↑ http://www.biographien.ac.at/oebl/oebl_B/Bockenheimer-Bockenheim_Franz_1856_1937.xml
  18. ↑ http://www.biographien.ac.at/oebl/oebl_M/Mueller_Richard_1867_1950.xml
  19. ↑ http://www.biographien.ac.at/oebl/oebl_M/Metzger_Hugo_1881_1950.xml
  20. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from April 9, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.graz.at

See also

Web links

Commons : Friedhof St. Leonhard (Graz)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 47 ° 4 ′ 38.7 ″  N , 15 ° 28 ′ 0.5 ″  E