Description of the attraction
The cemetery in Rzeszow is the oldest city cemetery, covering an area of 3.65 hectares. Currently, the old cemetery has 622 graves.
Rzeszow, from August 5, 1772, together with the entire southeastern part of Poland, became part of the Habsburg monarchy, after which Emperor Joseph II issued a decree prohibiting the creation of new burials within the city. In January 1784, the municipality was given 4 weeks to find suitable sites for the construction of new cemeteries.
The old cemetery was founded in 1792 on the site of an ancient abandoned cemetery. The area for new burials was increased threefold. Over the years, the number of inhabitants increased rapidly (1785 - 1661 inhabitants, 1900 - 17488 inhabitants), so the cemetery was expanded in 1879 and reached the banks of the river. In January 1910, by decision of the city council, it was closed for further burials.
Despite the official closure, during the Second World War, the cemetery again became a burial site. Peaceful victims of the German bombing of 1939, as well as the liberation fighters who died in 1944, were buried here. During the war, German troops raided the cemetery in search of metal gravestones and gratings, which they used for military purposes.
In the post-war years, the old cemetery was repeatedly desecrated by vandals and destroyed, in connection with which the local authorities even had the idea of turning the cemetery into a city park. Fortunately, such a plan remained unfulfilled. In 1957, the old cemetery was closed again, and 11 years later it was declared a historical site.
Reviews
| All reviews 5 Inna 2016-08-01 5:37:10 AM
It's hard to tears … I think that somewhere here my father's family was buried in 1939 …. They lived in Rzeszow. The whole family was taken to execution. Father and his one brother managed to escape to the Union. I have never been to Poland and I don’t know if I will ever get there … How can I find out if my relatives are buried there? Please tell me if it’s not difficult..
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