St. Marx Cemetery
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St. Marx Cemetery (Sankt Marxer Friedhof) is a cemetery in the Landstraße district of Vienna, used from 1784 until 1874. It was named after a nearby almshouse. 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 of Vienna. 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 funeral in the Stephansdom simply followed the regulations of the day.
It includes the graves of
- Johann Georg Albrechtsberger
- Josef Strauss
- Anton Diabelli
- Count Philipp von Cobenzl
- Georg Donner
- Alexander Ypsilanti
- Franz Pfeiffer
- Baron Ernst Von Feuchtersleben
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 what was presumed to be the correct spot. Later the stone 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.
[edit] External links
- History, along with a list of graves (in German)
