There is a quarter not far from Old Town Square in Prague where Jews lived for a long time. This quarter is a Jewish Quarter also called Josefov after the name of the Emperor Joseph II who allowed Jews to participate in commerce, culture and other parts of life that was prohibited before this reign. But the history of this Jewish Town goes to the XIII century.

This part of Prague has been changed a lot from the earlier times and has its appearance after the big reconstructions in 1893-1913. Only the main buildings were preserved.

The one of those buildings is the Ceremonial Hall (Obřadní síň). It was built in 1911-12 by the architect J. Gerstl for the Jewish Burial Society. It is used as a ceremonial hall and as a part of Jewish Museum.

Ceremonial Hall In Josefov

Just behind the gates near the Ceremonial Hall you may find the Old Jewish Cemetery (Starý židovský hřbitov). It was used for burial starting from XV century until 1787. It counts about 12,000 tombstones presently visible and tombs are layered. The number of people buried here is about 100,000.

One of the know person buried on the Old Jewish Cemetery is Yehuda ben Bezalel known as the Maharal Rabbi Löw (1512-1609). This legendary Rabbi was known as a creator of a golem.

We didn’t come inside the museum (the ticket costs 300Kč ) and I’ve made a few photos of the Old Jewish Cemetery looking through the gates.

Jewish Cemetery

Old Jewish Cemetery

Images are HDR images processed in Photoshop after merge.