squirrel on St. Marx cemetery: Cemeteries of Vienna

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A squirrel adds some life to the tranquility of Friedhof St. Marx cemetery, the famous 18th and early 19th century cemetery


A squirrel brings some life to the otherwise rather forgotten cemetery of St. Marx. In the middle ages, there were several cemeteries within the city walls (which ran approximately where you find Ringstraße today. In the late 18th century, under the rule of Emperor Joseph II, these cemeteries were dissolved and new ones were build in today's districts two to nine.

This was done just before the population of Vienna rocketed away - by the mid-19th century, all the cemeteries of Joseph's age were sort of "overgrown" with houses. New cemeteries were built and the old ones dissolved, until the Zentralfriedhof opened its gates. Today, the cemetery of St. Marx is the only one of the Biedermeier-style cemeteries that is left - in fact, the only Biedermeier cemetery in the World (although Biedermeier was somewhat constrained to the German-speaking world).



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