Obj. ID: 49509
Jewish Funerary Art  Site of the Oldest Jewish cemetery in Kraśnik, Poland

According to ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, the first Jewish cemetery was likely established at the end of the 16th or in the early 17th century. The first information about it dates back to 1612. It was located about 100 meters north-east of the market square, on the sloping ground outside the town walls. There was a gateway to the cemetery in the wall and the cemetery was bordered by gardens and meadows as well as being surrounded by a trench. Its total area of about 0.2 hectares was rectangular. The cemetery was closed in the 1640s or 1650s, this was likely related to the relocation of communal buildings to a new place in the town and to the townspeople’s complaints regarding the noisy funeral processions passing through the market square. During World War II, the cemetery was destroyed, the tombstones were used to pave streets and pavements, and the area was used as arable gardens. Currently, there are no traces of the existence of the cemetery. The area is partially built-up with residential houses and gardens. Only one tombstone dating from 1634 survived outside the cemetery.

Perimeter length: 210 metres (this is an estimated perimeter created on the basis of cadastral plots given in the Verification of Jewish cemeteries in Poland with the verification of their condition, commissioned by the general conservator of monuments in Lublin Voivodeship).

 

Broken tombsones in synagogue in Krasnik, Poland