Jewish Cemeterty

]] ]] Due to the sanitation ordinance of the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, every graveyard in Vienna within the city walls had to be closed. In place of the old local graveyards that had developed around the parish churches, new graveyards were constructed outside the city walls. The Jewish community was also affected by this measure, as they maintained a cemetery in the Seegasse (Roßau). This cemetery was closed. For this reason, in 1784 the Jewish community acquired a 2-hectare plot of land next to the newly constructed General Cemetery of Währing; there, in the same year, they opened the new Jewish cemetery, demarcated by a wall. Originally, the cemetery consisted only of the part to the…

If one enters the cemetery via the gate in the Schrottenbachgasse, to the left of the entrance just by the road one will find the building formerly used for the preparation of the deceased's body according to Jewish rites (see Tumah and taharah). It is an example of neoclassical architecture, built by Joseph Kornhäusel. The side facing the street has been bricked up, but for the most part the building is still well-preserved. The older part of the cemetery is to the left of the entrance; the avenue of lime trees separates this older part from the newer part that was acquired later. The older part contains the graves of historically relevant people such as Fanny von Arnstein and the Epstein…