Multilayer Jewish Cemetery in Prague

• Laminated Jewish Cemetery in Prague

In the past, when the cemetery was short on space, and there was nowhere to expand, a new cemetery was created by the application on the ground old graves. That's what happens all the time in the old Jewish cemetery in Prague Jewish quarter. Not once, not twice, but twenty!

The cemetery - one of the oldest surviving Jewish burial places in the world. It was founded in the early 15th century, the oldest tombstone dates to 1439. The last burial was done in 1787. Between these two burials it took about 350 years, and was buried in the cemetery more than 100 thousand people - on top of each other, and so twenty layers.

In those days, the Jews in Prague were allowed to bring only the ground in the Jewish quarter of Josefov. The cemetery has been expanded several times, but the place was still not enough. The Jewish religion forbids moving tombstones and graves were applied to the existing layers of the earth, and the old tombstones excavated and put on a new layer of soil. Today, there are about 12 thousand graves.