The New Jewish Cemetery

Nad vodovodem 1, Strašnice

A path in The New Jewish Cemetery in Prague with a sign pointing to Kafka's grave.

The New Jewish Cemetery had been laid out in the late nineteenth century and originally designed for around 100,000 graves; it was one of the largest cemeteries in Prague. The complex also includes the Neo-Renaissance ceremonial hall and an administrative building at the entrance. Major turn-of-the-century architects such as Antonín Balšánek, Jan Kotěra, Josef Fanta, Čeněk Vosmík, and Josef Zasche designed magnificent gravestones here. Strolling through their ranks is like walking in a lost world. Among Jewish industrialists and the late-nineteenth-century upper classes, we also find the last resting places of many shining lights of Prague’s intellectual life, including writers Ota Pavel and Oskar Baum, painter Max Horb and philosopher Vilém Flusser, while the ashes of Czech poet Jiří Orten are interred in the grove of urns here.

The gravestone for Franz, Hermann and Julie Kafka.

Kafka’s grave lies around 200 metres to the right of the entrance, facing the cemetery wall. His parents Julie and Hermann Kafka are buried here too. Prague architect Leopold Ehrmann designed the cubist gravestone in the form of a truncated hexagonal crystal.

You can find the full article on The New Jewish Cemetery in Franz Kafka: A Life in Prague.

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