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Yanivsky cemetery in Lviv

A photo catalog of the burials of this cemetery is available at the link 

Yanivsky cemetery is one of the central necropolises of Lviv, where many famous citizens are buried. The New Jewish cemetery became part of it in the 1960s. Since then, the two concepts have been inseparable for Jews, although the Jewish cemetery has its own history.

The first mention of the Jewish cemetery is in the Book of Urban Incomes and Expenses 1404-1414. It is dated May 1414 and contains the amount that Jews had to pay annually to the city treasury for a land plot - three dozen Polish pennies.

In 1855, after the cholera outbreak, the cemetery was closed. Then a new Jewish cemetery appeared in the Yanivsky suburb. It has expanded twice. In 1890 and 1930, the Jewish community bought additional land. The Christian cemetery, which is still known as Yanivsky, appeared nearby in the 1880s.

In 1856, the merchant Efraim Vicksel allocated funds for the construction of a synagogue at the cemetery. In 1875, the Lviv community allocated money to ensure that Pilikhovskaya Street (now V. Eroshenko) was paved with paving stones. It led from Yanivsky to the Jewish cemetery. In 1890, a fence in the neo-Romanesque style, created by architect Alfred Kamienobrodzki, appeared at the cemetery and in 1894, an administrative building. It was built according to the project of Salomon Kroch.

In 1912, architects Roman Felinsky and Jerzy Grodinsky developed the project of Bet Tahara. The building was built in modern style.

In 1919, the cemetery was replenished with a memorial to Jewish soldiers who died in the Ukrainian-Polish confrontation in November 1918. The architect Wawrzyniec Dayczak designed it. By the 1950s, the memorial fell into decay, and by 1960, garages appeared in its place.

In the first years of the Nazi occupation, the cemetery functioned. In 1943, the Nazis blew up Bet Tahara, and granite and marble slabs were partially transported to Germany. Part of the plates was discovered in 2017 on the Galitskaya square. Tourists from the United States noticed that paving slabs contain inscriptions resembling those made on matzevas. Through the efforts of volunteers, excavations were carried out and about 20 matzevas were returned to the cemetery.

In 1962, the authorities dissolved the religious community, and the New Jewish Cemetery became part of Yanivsky. Today, Jewish graves are located along the central alley and retained their own numbering. Some of them are surrounded by bars to protect against vandals.