Old Jewish Cemetery

Many prominent members of Prague's Jewish community have been laid to rest in the city's Old Jewish Cemetery. In this quiet but lovely graveyard, almost 12,000 headstones compete for space, the oldest of which originates from 1439 and belongs to the scholar Avigdor Karo. The Old Jewish Cemetery, which was in operation until 1787, is said to have had many more burials than the headstones, which were likely stacked one on top of the other. Among the numerous graves are those of Rabbi Loew, the golem's creator, and Mordechai Maisel, the previous mayor of Prague's Jewish Quarter.

The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague is one of the world's oldest surviving Jewish cemeteries, and it is the most important site in the Prague Jewish Town, along with the Old-New Synagogue.

It's uncertain when the cemetery was established. The earliest gravestone, however, is from 1439 and is that of rabbi and poet Avigdor Kara. The gravestones document a continuous sequence of burials dating back to the middle of the 15th century. Emperor Joseph II had outlawed burials within the city walls for sanitary reasons three years prior, as evidenced by the final gravestone, which dates from 1787.

Location: Prague