Judengarten (Prague)

The Jewish Garden (Czech Židovská zahrada, Latin Hortus Judaeorum ) is one of the Jewish cemeteries in Prague and the first historically proven Jewish cemetery in this city. It was located in the New Town of Prague by today's Spálená, Jungmannova and Lazarská streets.

history

The cemetery was probably laid out in front of the walls of Prague's Old Town at the beginning of the 13th century. In 1255 King Ottokar II. Přemysl granted a privilege relating to this cemetery and which states, among other things: Likewise, a Christian who devastates their (the Jews) cemetery by any malicious act or breaks into it by force is sentenced to death , and all his property goes to the royal chamber. Apparently the Jewish Garden was also used for funerals from the area around Prague, as there are reports of the duty-free transfer of the deceased here. In 1410, King Wenceslas IV confirmed that the Jews would use the cemetery for all eternity . But as early as 1478, the Jewish Garden was closed by King Wladislaw II Jagiello and abandoned in favor of the cemetery in the old town . The street called Vladislavova today was laid out above the former cemetery.

In 1866, some tombstone fragments from the old Jewish garden from the middle of the 14th century were found during construction work. At that time they were taken to the Old Jewish Cemetery and walled up there in the memorial in front of the Klausen Synagogue . In 1998 a contiguous strip of the burial ground and the remains of numerous graves were discovered which were archaeologically examined. The graves faced east with their heads west and were about 2 meters deep. They were clad with flat stones to protect them from damage caused by later burial. No grave goods were found; according to an old custom, the corpses had little stone slabs on their mouth and eyes. The continuous part of the burial ground was reinforced with concrete and left in place, while the remains of the damaged graves were buried in the new Jewish cemetery in Olšany .

literature

• Arno Pařík, Vlastimila Hamáčková; Dana Cabanová, Petr Kliment (photos): Prague Jewish cemeteries . = Pražské židovské hřbitovy . = Prague Jewish cemeteries (translated by Stephen Hattersly and Peter Zieschang), Jewish Museum, Prague 2003, ISBN 80-85608-69-3 ( Czech / German / English ).

Coordinates: 50 ° 4 ′ 50 ″  N , 14 ° 25 ′ 16 ″  E