Olsanske Hrbitovy

& Zidovske Hrbitovy

By Jennifer Page

Although walking through a cemetery might seem a bit morbid at first, Olsanske Hrbitovy is a great respite from the loud city streets that surround it.  This cemetery is no ordinary one either.  One of the biggest in Prague, it boasts Franz Kafka’s grave in the Zidovske (Jewish) Hrbitovy side, a synagogue, church, and sometimes extremely ornate gravestones dating back to the 1700’s.  You can get lost wandering along the weaving, ivy-covered walkways.  The sun and loud traffic sounds are blocked out by a thick canopy of ancient trees, making you feel like you’re in a forest instead of downtown Prague.  Another plus is that it is connected on the far west side to the Flora Mall and all the shopping that is in that area of the neighborhood.  “The Olsanske side was started in the 1600’s to house the cremated bodies of plague victims. You can see hundreds of stacked glass boxes along the entrance walls that hold urns of the victims. Jan Palach’s grave is the most visited in the cemetery. He was a philosophy student who lit himself on fire to protest the 1969 Communist occupation.  The Zidovske side was started as the new Jewish cemetery in the 1800’s and was designed to hold 100,000 graves.  There are many monuments to concentration camp victims, but the absence of graves on the east side of the cemetery is a telling sign of the impact of WWII on the Jewish community in Prague to this day.”  If you like history or just want to get away from the heat and city streets, Olsanske Hrbitovy is a great way to get off the typical tourist track and see a part of Prague that few can claim to have been to.  Historical information found in the Rough Guide Prague Directions guide book by Rob Humphreys.