Prądnik Czerwony Cemetery
Kraków Cemeteries
The largest and one of the youngest cemeteries in Kraków (Prądnik Czerwony district), also called the Batowice cemetery. It consists of two neighbouring necropolises: the parish one, opened in 1923, and the municipal one from 1966. The municipal part was redeveloped to a design by Romuald Loegler: the funeral house "Gateway to the City of the Dead", named one of the most interesting Polish buildings since 1989, and catacomb niches. Today the cemetery covers about 42 hectares. Jan Kaczara, the cab driver portrayed by Gałczyński in the poem "The Enchanted Cab", rests in the parish part.
History
Prądnik Czerwony Cemetery, also known as Batowice Cemetery, is the largest and one of the youngest cemeteries in Kraków. It is made up of two neighbouring burial grounds. The parish cemetery was opened in 1923 and consecrated in 1931; it covers about 1 ha and lies in the north-western corner of the complex. The municipal cemetery, opened in 1966, was named after nearby Batowice. From 1996 it was redeveloped to a design by the architect Romuald Loegler. This produced the Gate to the City of the Dead funeral home, chosen in 2006 as one of the twenty most interesting Polish architectural projects since 1989, and the catacomb niches, with the first burial in 1999. The cemetery now covers about 41.75 ha and is eventually to cover 55 ha. Among those buried here are the sculptors Jerzy Bereś and Maria Pinińska-Bereś and the singer and actor Andrzej Zaucha. The cemetery also has Kraków's largest section for people of unknown identity.
Did you know?
The parish cemetery is the resting place of Jan Kaczara, the cab driver whom Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński described in his poem "Zaczarowana dorożka" ("The Enchanted Carriage").