St. Marx cemetery

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St. Marx cemetery (Sankt Marxer Friedhof) is a cemetery in Landstraße, Vienna, used from 1784 until 1874. It was named after an almshouse nearby. The cemetery was opened in response to a decree by Emperor Joseph II that forbade further burials in cemeteries within the outer walls of the city. He also ordered that bodies should be buried unembalmed and without coffins in mass graves. Thus the common assumption that Mozart's grave (see below) was unmarked because he was too poor is false: his burial in 1791 after a normal funeral in the Stephansdom simply followed the regulations of the day.

The gravestone of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

It hosts the graves of

The most famous is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. However, 17 years after his death, his widow couldn't find his grave, neither could Vincent Novello in 1829. In 1855 a gravestone was erected at the assumed position. Later it was transferred to the group of famous musician graves at Zentralfriedhof. A cemetery worker replaced it with a memorial tablet, which was again expanded by several contributors.

The rest of the cemetery decayed. It was restored, put under historic preservation and opened to the public in 1937.