Salzburg municipal cemetery

Municipal cemetery in Salzburg, old funeral hall by Franz Drobny, now cemetery administration

Municipal cemetery, urn field with Angel of Peace by Franz Melnitzky (1866), former Aspern Bridge in Vienna

The Salzburg municipal cemetery was opened in 1879 on the outskirts of today's Gneis district and, with around 20,000 grave sites, is the largest cemetery in the city and in the state of Salzburg . Every year around 1,300 people find their final resting place there, around a third of them in a cremation . The cemetery has an area of 25 hectares and is also used as a recreational area for many Salzburg residents . In addition to the actual graves, the municipal cemetery also has an anonymous urn field , war graves, a Dutch military cemetery , a complex with honorary graves and a Muslim cemetery.

The municipal cemetery administration of the city's gardening authority is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the municipal cemetery and also looks after the district cemeteries in Gnigl , Maxglan , Aigen and Morzg. In contrast to the district cemeteries, the municipal cemetery has opening times outside of which it is not accessible to visitors. The cemetery is well connected to the public transport network and can be reached with the city bus lines 5 (Kommunalfriedhof stop) and 22 ( Georg-von-Nissen- Strasse).

history

When the area of the small city cemeteries gradually became insufficient at the end of the 19th century due to the population growth of the city and an expansion of the existing cemetery rooms in St. Peter, St. St. Sebastian and in Nonntal was in no way possible and in the surrounding communities in individual cases also failed due to resistance from neighbors and because a burial in the city center no longer seemed appropriate, the city fathers acquired the first area for today's municipal cemetery in the southern neighboring municipality of Morzg with the "Sandbichlgut". Only a few meters away from the new cemetery on the other side of Berchtesgadener Straße between 1700 (but in a simpler form probably since 1599) and around 1820 was the "Poor Sinner Cemetery", where the dead from the nearby execution site (with gallows and beheading) were buried . The cemetery has been connected to the public transport network since 1886 - first via the "Rote Elektrische" railway line and since around 1950 via trolleybus lines or bus lines.

The new cemetery was designed by Josef Dauscher based on the model of the Ohlsdorf Forest Cemetery in Hamburg, which opened in 1877 . It should not only be a place of remembrance, but also serve as a recreational space for the population and contribute to urban greening. The first burials took place as early as 1873. H. before the actual opening of the cemetery by the outbreak of a cholera - epidemic . A year later, the site was measured, including the division of the grave fields. Due to disputes about the row burial without regard to the denomination of the deceased, the opening was delayed for another year. According to the same on January 1, 1879 , 378 burials were held in the first year of its existence. Further steps followed in 1914 with the construction of the morgue, which is still in use today, and the construction of the first Salzburg crematorium on the cemetery grounds in 1931, which made it unnecessary to move to the Upper Austrian cities of Linz and Steyr for cremations . By 2005, around 150,000 people found their final resting place at the Salzburg municipal cemetery.

Location and layout

The municipal cemetery is located in the Gneis district, which has been incorporated into Salzburg since 1935, on the border with Nonntal and Morzg- Kleingmain. The Hohensalzburg Fortress and the Tennengebirge , Hagengebirge and Untersberg mountain ranges at the city limits can be seen from the cemetery complex . The cemetery, which has been able to retain its original character since it was opened, is shaped by the graves of around 1,600, some very old and stately trees inside the cemetery, and around 200 trees, many of which also serve as the border of the complex. The abundant use of deciduous trees and other hardwoods , in harmony with the artistic and horticultural design of the facility, creates a colorful picture of a local recreation area, in which trees of life (thujas), weeping willows and spruces should hardly appear as symbolic trees of mourning, as they are in This important recreational area is technically unsuitable for various professional reasons.

The main portal, which has been preserved in its original form, and the surrounding wall, largely preserved by pilasters and made of roughly hewn conglomerate stone plinth and grouted Wienerberg bricks, are of cultural and historical interest . The cemetery with its surrounding wall originally had an approximately square and largely symmetrical floor plan. The crypt arcades on both sides of the main portal take up historicizing Renaissance elements . The gate grille of the main portal was designed by Josef Salb, a professor at the trade school at the time, and forged from round iron by Karl Fiedler in 1885. It has wonderful embossed ornaments and is still considered to be one of the most outstanding works of Salzburg locksmithing. The neo-baroque mortuary with its high drum dome, built by Franz Dobny in the east of the cemetery in 1893–95, now serves as an administration building. The larger, new funeral hall with baroque and classical style elements was designed by Eduard Wiedemann south of the old funeral hall in 1912–13. The glass windows already have an Art Nouveau ornamentation.

In cooperation with Christoph Obermair and the Hallein Technical School for Stonemasons , the cemetery fountain was created in 2003, whose circular path with four cobblestone slopes is intended to symbolize the transition from life to death and lead to the four elements of water, earth, fire and air.

In March 2019, a memorial to the former Federal Chancellor Rudolf Ramek was unveiled at the cemetery of Governor Wilfried Haslauer junior and former Governor Franz Schausberger .