Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague: Graves, Stones and How to Visit

Entrance, Ticket and Rules

Entry to the cemetery runs through the Pinkas Synagogue at Široká 3, and the marked route brings you out on U Starého hřbitova street. There is no separate cemetery ticket. Admission comes with the Jewish Quarter Ticket, the museum's unified ticket, which covers the currently open sites in the circuit: the Maisel, Pinkas, Spanish and Old-New Synagogues plus this cemetery. Children up to 6 enter free, and each site can be entered only once per ticket, so time your route. Individual and family tickets stay valid for three opening days, while group tickets for six or more people are valid only on the day of issue. Men must cover their heads on entering, with their own cap or a borrowed one. Visitors may walk only the marked route, bags over 30 litres are refused, and security checks apply at entry. Wheelchair access is partial and comes from U Starého hřbitova street at the exit side, not from the Pinkas entrance. The table pulls these details together.

The cemetery closes with the museum: every Saturday and on Jewish holidays, plus the published holiday dates. Temporary changes are announced at least 24 hours ahead on the museum website.

How Long to Allow and When It Is Quiet

The cemetery is one stop on the museum circuit, which is enough to walk the marked loop and stop at the best-known stones. Budget the full 2 to 3 hours the museum suggests for the complete circuit if you add the synagogues. Tickets stop being sold 30 minutes before closing, and staff start moving visitors out 10 minutes before closing, so a late-afternoon arrival cuts the visit short.

For quiet, the museum itself advises avoiding the 11:00 to 15:00 peak and says mornings and late afternoons are much quieter. First thing in the morning is the better bet. If a guide would help you read the stones, the Jewish Quarter and Museum Tour is a private 3-hour walk with a guide certified by the Jewish Museum, and entry is included in its price from $81 per person.

• About 30 minutes for the cemetery alone, 2-3 hours for the full circuit
• Mornings and late afternoons are quieter than 11:00-15:00
• Last ticket sales 30 minutes before closing, last exit 10 minutes before
• Closed every Saturday and on Jewish holidays

Rabbi Loew

Rabbi Loew, also called the Maharal, died in 1609 and has the most visited grave in the cemetery. His Renaissance tomb draws pilgrims who leave written prayer requests tucked around it. Loew is linked to the legend of the Golem, the clay creature he is said to have made to protect the ghetto, a story told on its own page about the Golem of Prague.

His statutes for the Prague Burial Society became a model for Ashkenazi burial societies across Europe. Sources disagree on his birth year, with 1512 and about 1524 both given, but the death in 1609 is fixed.

• Died 1609
• Renaissance tomb, the cemetery's most visited
• Linked to the Golem legend

Mordecai Maisel

Mordecai Maisel, 1528 to 1601, was the mayor of the Jewish Town and is buried here. The Maisel Synagogue was built for him between 1590 and 1592, and the Jewish Town Hall was built under him.

• Lived 1528-1601
• Mayor of the Jewish Town
• Built the Maisel Synagogue, 1590-1592

David Gans

David Gans was born in Lippstadt in 1541 and died in Prague on 25 August 1613. He was a chronicler and astronomer, an associate of Tycho Brahe and Kepler, and the first influential Jewish writer to reconcile Copernicanism. His chronicle Tzemach David, published in 1592, covers Jewish and general history in two parts.

Brahe asked him to translate the Alfonsine Tables from Hebrew into German. His gravestone is one of the easiest to spot: it carries a Star of David, alluding to his book Magen David, and a goose, because gans means goose in German and Yiddish.

• Lived 1541-1613
• Astronomer and chronicler, worked with Tycho Brahe and Kepler
• Stone shows a Star of David and a goose

Avigdor Kara

Avigdor Kara holds the oldest identified grave in the cemetery, with a stone dating to 1439, the very start of the burial record here. He was chief rabbi of Prague and a Kabbalist who met King Wenceslaus IV. He wrote an elegy on the 1389 Easter pogrom, in which an estimated 3,000 Prague Jews were murdered.

The elegy, Et Kol Hatela'ah, is still part of Yom Kippur services. He is called the last Ashkenazi payyetan, a composer of liturgical poetry, with 8 of his piyyutim surviving. Finding his stone means standing at the earliest dated point of the burial record.

• Died 1439
• Oldest identified grave in the cemetery
• Wrote an elegy on the 1389 pogrom

David Oppenheim

Chief Rabbi David Oppenheim died in 1736. His library is kept at Oxford's Bodleian Library.

• Died 1736
• Chief Rabbi
• His library sits in Oxford's Bodleian

Mordecai Katz and Joseph Solomon Delmedigo

Mordecai Katz died in 1592. Joseph Solomon Delmedigo lived from 1591 to 1655. A pair of blessing hands on a stone marks a Cohen, a descendant of priests, and a pitcher marks a Levite, so check the carvings as you go.

• Mordecai Katz, died 1592
• Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, 1591-1655
• Blessing hands mark a Cohen, a pitcher marks a Levite

More Stones Than Graves

The museum counts more than 12,000 tombstones on the site, and some researchers suggest the graves were stacked in up to ten layers, with some places showing as many as twelve. Graves were stacked in layers, which is why the stones lean and jostle at odd angles today.

The oldest identified stone dates to 1439 and belongs to Avigdor Kara, the chief rabbi and Kabbalist who died that year. He wrote an elegy on the 1389 Passover pogrom that is still part of Yom Kippur services. Early stones are dark sandstone, while later ones are marble with ornate reliefs.

The stones carry Hebrew inscriptions, and the carved symbols stand for profession, lineage and character, so a trained eye can read a life from the relief alone. A guide makes this code legible, which is one of the strongest arguments for a Prague Jewish Quarter tour.

The Symbols and What They Mean

Carved signs on the stones are not decoration. They mark the profession, lineage and character of the people below, and sometimes their surnames. Here are the meanings the sources give, so you can decode stones as you walk the marked route.

How Long It Was in Use

The museum says the cemetery was in use between 1439 and 1787, while Wikipedia describes use from the first half of the 15th century until 1786, with the last burial in 1787. The honest reading is that the two sources differ on the exact end date: one says 1786, the other 1787, and the last burial is placed in 1787 after Joseph II banned burials inside the city walls. Either way, burials ran from 1439 into the 1780s.

It survived the demolition that reshaped Josefov between 1893 and 1913, when most of the former ghetto's buildings were torn down and only six synagogues, the cemetery and the Town Hall were spared. The key years are below.

Tours That Enter the Cemetery

The clearest option on entry is Prague: Jewish Quarter Walking Tour with Admission Tickets at $74 per person. It lasts 2.5 hours and includes entry to the Maisel, Pinkas, Spanish and Old-New synagogues plus the Old Jewish Cemetery.

The private Prague: Jewish Quarter and Museum Guided Tour costs $81 per person with a 25 euro entrance fee included and runs 3 hours with a Jewish Museum certified guide. For a private option with hotel pick-up, Prague: Synagogues and Jewish Quarter Private Walking Tour is $189 per group of up to 2 for 2.5 hours with admission included, and Prague's Jewish Quarter Private Tour is $165.89 per person for 3 hours with the entrance fee included.

Inside Jewish Prague: A Journey Through Time at $68.64 per person walks Josefov's synagogues and the cemetery over 3 hours, but the listing does not say admission is covered. On the self-guided side, the museum ticket is sold as the Jewish Quarter Ticket and on Prague: Jewish Quarter Ticket with Optional Audio Guide at $51 per person, valid 1 day with a 20-minute introduction. All listings here offer free cancellation 24 hours ahead.