POLNÁ JEWISH CEMETERY
More than one thousand tombstones in irregular rows stand in the Jewish cemetery in Polná. The oldest is dated 1626. Thanks to the work of enthusiasts, the cemetery did not succumb to devastation.
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Karlovo náměstí 540
Polná
District: Jihlava
588 13
A Jewish cemetery appeared on a hillside near the Šlapanka River in the 16th century. At that time, several Jewish families lived there. The oldest tombstone dates back to the beginning of the 17th century, the youngest one is dated 1977. The cemetery has an irregular shape because it has been expanded many times, with its current size being about a quarter of a hectare. In thirty irregular rows there are over one thousand baroque, classicist and modern tombstones. They are inscribed in Hebrew, German and Czech. The children's graves had their place in the north-eastern part.
It was entered through a simple wooden passage mortuary, which was rebuilt in the nineteenth century. After World War II, the building fell into disrepair and the ceiling collapsed. Today's entrance, built in 1995, is narrower with a wrought-iron grill decorated with a six-pointed star made by Erwin Habermann, an artistic blacksmith from Jihlava. Some of the monuments were toppled and overturned in the 20th century, but since the velvet revolution the cemetery has been cared for by the Friends for the Preservation of Jewish Monuments in Polná.
Photo: city of Polná, archive of Vysočina Tourism
