History

Already the name of cemetery is misleading. The cemetery is not situated at Malá Strana (the Prague's Lesser Town). Neither the designation of the adjacent church of Holy Trinity, which is said to belong to Košíře, can help. The cemetery, as well as the church, is located on the territory of present district Smíchov, and it's area is 2.2 ha. This place started to be used as a burial place when Prague was affected by plague round the year 1680. It was used for burials also during the plague epidemics in the years 1713–1714. 
 
Thereafter, this place lost its nature of a graveyard. After fundamental change in burying, when Emperor Joseph II banned burials near churches, this burial place again acquired its determination, as new cemeteries were allowed to be founded only outside the town limits because of hygienic reasons. Therefore, in 1786, this Lesser Town Cemetery was founded to be used for burials by the inhabitants of the municipalities on the left bank of the river Vltava, namely Malá Strana, Hradčany, Smíchov and Košíře. At that time, there were only few buildings and vineyards here. In particular after the Ringhofer factory was built in the year 1852, the industrial development of the district Smíchov influenced the growth of residential buildings which extended up to the cemetery. In 1884, after 98 years of existence, the cemetery has been abolished. 
 
Round the year 1910, this enormous boom and expansion of this part of Smíchov began to endanger the existence of the Lesser Town Cemetery. At that time, credits for its preservation belong especially to the Club for Old Prague, which raised large wave of protests headed by Jakub Arbes, influential Czech revolutionary, intellectual and writer. In 1916, so called Easter Memorandum, a mover of which was also Alois Jirásek, a famous Czech writer, nominated repeatedly for Novel Prize, expressed another disagreement with the liquidation of this cemetery. 
 
Heavy traffic at Plzeňská street necessitated it widening regrettably at the expense of the territory of Lesser Town Cemetery. Graves at its northern wall had to be transferred to another place (e. g. the grave of Josepha Duschek, an outstanding soprano singer and friend of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). In 1951–53, during another widening of the Plzeňská street, remains from graves near the main street and church were disinterred and together with the original headstones transferred to the central part where is also the dominant grave of Leopold Thun–Hohenstein, a bishop from Passau, with kneeling sculpture made of cast iron by the famous Prague sculptor Václav Prachner. 
 
WHY THIS CEMETERY IS UNIQUE 
• Distinguished representatives of the Czech National Revival are buried here, e. g.: G. Pfleger Moravský, J. Tandler., I. Cornova, V. Pešina from Čechorod, A. Pinkas… 
• It is the final resting place of prominent architects, sculptors, artists: Christoph Dientzenhofer and Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer, Ignaz Franz Platzer, Antonín Mánes and Václav Mánes, Adolf Kosárek, Vincenc Morstadt… 
• We can find here artistically valuable gravestones, sculptures and tombs from reputable sculptors of 19th century: Platzer, Václav Prachner, J. Malinský, J. Max, F. X. J. Linn, F. Pischelt… 
• Not far from Bertramka, it commemorates the generation of Mozart's friends, namely: Franz Xaver Duschek and Josepha Duschek, V. Tomášek, J. Vitásek… 
• Exactly defined period of existence (1786–1884) maps social stratification of the population (from members of lower nobility to the poor from almshouses), outlines the then existing economic relations and shows length of life of inhabitants of Prague at that time. 
• Every visitor must surely appreciate calmness, peacefulness and romance which contrast with busy neighbourhood. 
 
Prepared by Eva Gorgolová. www.malostranskyhrbitov.cz.