We spent our morning in a very special place with our good friend, Signe Lassl, who lives here in Vienna. She was the perfect tour guide as she led us through Vienna’s main cemetery.
The Central Cemetery, which opened in 1874, is much more than just a last resting place. Around two square kilometers in area, it is the second largest cemetery in Europe. Accordingly, you can find a parallel world here that could scarcely offer more in the way of variety. The graves – among them many graves of honor of world-famous musicians such as Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, Ludwig van Beethoven, as well as Falco and Udo Jürgens – are not the only impressive features here. The cemetery church of St. Karl Borromäus is one of the most beautiful Art Nouveau churches in Vienna. Arcade tombs, mausoleums, and bizarre-looking monuments create a unique atmosphere that also ensures a certain amount of creepiness. – Welcome to a very special Viennese place!
Taken from the Vienna Central Cemetery website.
The cemetery was pretty organic (not manicured). Long grass. Most of the more normal stones were dark granite, tall and narrow. Not much statuary or religious markers. The graves were crowded. There were also war sections with rows and rows of fallen soldiers. One section was all Russian soldiers. The Jewish section had Holocaust victims, row after row. There is a wooded area for scattering ashes. There is a park area for kids to “recreate.” There are deer who live in the cemetery and come out early in the morning or in the evenings. There was a beautiful church–we went in it. Art Nouveau. Important people have funerals there. The presidents of Austria are buried here. Lots of history all in this place. Signe said she loves thinking about the stories of each person. Sometimes she sees an interesting stone in the famous people sections, then looks up the person to see what they did. She’s gotten to know many of them and she has her favorites.
The whole experience was really nice. We enjoyed it and she enjoyed sharing it with us. We spent almost 3 hours there, feeling the peace and beauty of the place.
Paradise of the animals
Above all else, of course, the Viennese love the Central Cemetery for its qualities as a local recreation area. The cemetery is a natural paradise and the perfect place for going on long walks. The Central Cemetery is also just as popular with joggers. Cycling is also permitted. – And with a little luck, you might also come across some very special residents here. Because when things rustle in the bushes, nobody need fear the undead: the Central Cemetery is a habitat of deer, field hamsters, squirrels, badgers, martens, kestrels, and many other kinds of animal that value this huge area as much as the Viennese.
We started our wandering in the old Israelite (Jewish) section, a lush green burial ground with lots of architecturally interesting monuments and graves of prominent Jewish personalities. The graves were in all shapes and sizes, from simple headstones, to full structures that house many family members.
Broken stones here are also preserved, which is unusual in many European cemeteries where the plots are given up when the family stops paying for the space. When that happens, the stones are often stacked in a corner of the cemetery, or repurposed into new stones.
Can you tell the change in the neighborhood here? The area for each ethnic group has its own personality.
Interesting how many of these graves had their own benches for family to sit and visit.
Here is the Buddhist section:
And here is the Latter-day Saint section, started about 10 years ago. The cemetery had reserved this area for nuns, but since there aren’t so many nuns anymore, they were not using the ground. They agreed to let our church use it. It’s in a prime location right behind the cemetery chapel.
Signe’s mother and step-father are buried here:
This is the nun’s section:
Here is the inside of the beautiful cemetery church.
This section is home to Russian soldiers who died here during WWII.
And here is the section for children and babies–there is a sweet and tender feeling here.
This section was also filled with lots of chairs for visiting loved ones. It made me smile. We do the same in our Lewis family when we visit the cemetery on Memorial Day.
Many of the trees here were filled with clumps of mistletoe.
This cemetery area is where ashes of the cremated can be spread. It’s a natural wooded area.
Famous people I don’t know:
In the cemetery center is the section for Vienna’s famous composers.
Mozart’s memorial:
There are so many great and wonderful people represented here by these stones and memorials. Gratefully, their spirits have moved on from this earth life and they continue to live in a heavenly place where we will join them one day. What grand reunions we will have!
This last statuary is perfect, Jesus Christ, our redeemer from death, “until we see each other again!”
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