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Lesser Town cemetery (Malostranský hřbitov)
Plzeňská Praha 5 - Smíchov 150 00 Phone: 251 566 684 http://www.malostranskyhrbitov.czAbout
Lesser Town Cemetery | At the Plzeňská Avenue, on the border between Smíchov and Košíře, there is the Malá Strana Cemetery extending on 2.2 ha. It is accessible via two entrances from the Plzeňská Avenue.HistoryThe management of the Italian hospital established a cemetery during the plague epidemics in 1680 in place of a former vineyard, and they established a hospital for the plague patients nearby. Many ill and unselfish Jesuits taking care of these patients were then buried here, during this and the next plague epidemics in 1713 - 14. In 1703 a Chapel of St. Roch was built here, consecrated to the protector against plague, and in 1715 the Chapel of the Holy Trinity was built. Both the chapel and the cemetery belonged to the Malá Strana Church of St. Václav (which used to be at Malostranské náměstí), hence the cemetery name, Malá Strana Cemetery. A new Church of the Holy Trinity was built in place of the Chapel of the Holy Trinity in the years 1831 - 37, and the Chapel of St. Roch was included in it. The Classicist building of the church with a tower in the front is decorated by the paintings of the Holy Trinity and the Last Judgement by František Horčička, by the painting of St. Anna (a copy from Rubens) by Filip Mazanec, and by the painting of the Holy Crucifix by L. Blankart. The building of the church was made possible by the Malá Strana Fraternity of Love for the Fellow Human beings. Among the benefactors, there was namely the Bishop of Passau, Count Leopold Thun-Hohenstein, who died in his summer house Cibulka nearby and was buried here. When Joseph II banned the funerals inside the city and under the church crypts, this cemetery became the city cemetery for the citizens on the right bank of the Vltava River as of the 1st July 1787 - for Malá Strana and Hradčany, and later for Smíchov (the Olšany Cemetery was assigned for the citizens on the right bank). The city grew fast and the cemetery soon got inside an inhabited area, which caused its closing in 1884. After that, the Na Malvazinkách Cemetery was used for funerals. The Smíchov Development Plan later on anticipated the abolishment of the Malá Strana Cemetery, but this was prevented due to a protesting wave of popular personalities. Over time, however, the cemetery was reduced several times, as a part of the cemetery was taken up by the communication, and many tombs were transferred from here namely to the Olšany Cemetery and to Vyšehrad (such as Karel Jaromír Erben).The TombstonesIn the middle of the cemetery, there is the most significant tombstone of the Bishop of Passau, Count Leopold Thun-Hohenstein. The tombstone is one of the best pieces of the sculptor Václav Prachner. It was cast in the Hořovice smelting plant and it is an important memorial of the artistic foundry industry in our country. The entire complex of the cemetery is an extensive gallery, namely of the Empire funeral sculptures. Among the tombstone authors, there are more famous names - František Xaver Lederer, Josef Malínský, Jan Ludvík Kranner, Josef and Emanuel Max. There is a well known tombstone of the Holy Girl by Josef Max from 1851 - there is a lying figure of a girl on a stone pedestal, to which children spontaneously started to bring their wishes and flowers. The story of the little girl is told in different ways. A legend says that she lived in a family at Újezd and was a nice and good girl who fell out of a window one day accidentally. Another legend says it was the daughter of painter Kristián Ruben, who died in a very early age from tuberculosis. A legend was created in connection with the tombstone by František Kožík in his book Svatá holčička (The Holy Girl - About a girl from Újezd in Prague named Anna Degenová, and the year of her death 1851).
