Plague cemetery

Plague cemetery at the Maria Schnee pilgrimage church in Legau

The plague cemetery was from the Middle Ages away from the population centers landscaped burial place for the rapid burial of plague victims, specifically of the plague . As a rule, it supplemented the churchyard , where the deceased were usually buried with a church ceremony.

During the duration of such epidemics, the victims were often buried quickly and without any ceremony, sometimes in mass graves . Only after the epidemic had subsided were common church ceremonies for all those buried.

Many plague cemeteries were closed at the latest in the 19th century, mostly even earlier; Occasionally, however, they were still used, such as the old cemetery , which was formerly used by deaconesses in Radebeul - Kötzschenbroda and is still open today as a burial site.

Occasionally preserved plague crosses remind of plague cemeteries .

Germany

• Pest cemetery in Zell , Eisenberg , Allgäu
• Gertrudenfriedhof, an alleged plague cemetery in front of the Danish Gate , Kiel, with at least 100 skeletons
• on a former meadow in Tanna
• Plague cemetery Welbergen , City of Ochtrup, North Rhine-Westphalia
• Former plague cemeteries in Radebeul , Saxony

Czech Republic

One of the well-preserved or restored plague cemeteries is that of Žďár nad Sázavou in the Czech Republic.

literature

• Frank Andert (Red.): Radebeul City Lexicon . Historical manual for the Loessnitz . Published by the Radebeul City Archives. 2nd, slightly changed edition. City archive, Radebeul 2006, ISBN 3-938460-05-9 .
• Volker Helas (arrangement): City of Radebeul . Ed .: State Office for Monument Preservation Saxony, Large District Town Radebeul (=  Monument Topography Federal Republic of Germany . Monuments in Saxony ). SAX-Verlag, Beucha 2007, ISBN 978-3-86729-004-3 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Pestfriedhof  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christa Geckeler: KIEL REMINDER DAY: February 14, 1961 Medieval plague cemetery in Kiel found. In: Kiel City Archives. https://www.kiel.de/ , accessed on July 17, 2017 . Hermann Helmuth, The human skeleton finds of the medieval Gertrudenfriedhof in Kiel in: Journal for Morphology and Anthropology, Volume 57, Issue 3 (September 1966), Emanuel Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung 
   
2. ↑ http://schleiz.otz.de/web/lokal/leben/detail/-/specific/Der-Pestfriedhof-im-Tannaer-Wald-1021367408