Vienna's Central Cemetery

Vienna Central Cemetery

The Charles Borromeo Church (aka Dr. Karl Lueger-Gedächtniskirche) at the Vienna Central Cemetery.
Details
Established	1863
Location	Simmering, Vienna
Country	Austria
Type	Public
Size	2.4 square kilometres (590 acres)
No. of graves	over 330,000 graves
No. of interments	3 million

The Vienna Central Cemetery (German: Wiener Zentralfriedhof) is one of the largest cemeteries in the world by number of interred, and is the most famous cemetery among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries.

The cemetery's name is descriptive of its significance as Vienna's biggest cemetery, not of its geographic location, as it is not situated in the city center of the Austrian capital, but on the outskirts, in the outer city district of Simmering.

Unlike many others, the Vienna Central Cemetery is not one that has evolved slowly with the passing of time. The decision to establish a new, big cemetery for Vienna came in 1863 when it became clear that – due to industrialization – the city's population would eventually increase to such an extent that the existing communal cemeteries would prove to be insufficient. City leaders expected that Vienna, then capital of the large Austro-Hungarian Empire, would grow to four million inhabitants by the end of the 20th century, as no-one foresaw the Empire's collapse in 1918. The city council therefore assigned an area significantly outside of the city's borders and of such a gigantic dimension, that it would suffice for a long time to come. They decided in 1869 that a flat area in Simmering should be the site of the future Central Cemetery. The cemetery was designed in 1870; according to the plans of the Frankfurt landscape architects Karl Jonas Mylius and Alfred Friedrich Bluntschli who were awarded for their project per angusta ad augusta (from dire to sublime).

The cemetery was opened on All Saints' Day in 1874, far outside Vienna's city borders. However the consecration of the cemetery was not without controversy: the interdenominational character of the new cemetery – the different faith groups being interred on the same ground – met with fierce resistance, of course, especially in conservative circles of the Roman Catholic Church.