St. Marx Cemetery is a cemetery

Cemetery

A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...

 in the Landstraße

Landstraße

Landstraße is the 3rd municipal District of Vienna, Austria] . It is near the center of Vienna and was established in the 19th century. Landstraße is a heavily populated urban area with many workers and residential homes. It has inhabitants in an area of 7.42 km². It has existed since...

 district of Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, used from 1784 until 1874. It was named after a nearby almshouse

Almshouse

Almshouses are charitable housing provided to enable people to live in a particular community...

.

History

The cemetery was opened in response to a decree by Emperor Joseph II

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor

Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...

 that forbade further burials in cemeteries within the outer walls of the city of Vienna. He also ordered that bodies should be buried unembalmed and without coffins in mass graves. Thus the common assumption that Mozart's grave (see below) was unmarked because he was too poor is false. His burial in 1791 after a funeral in the Stephansdom

Stephansdom

St. Stephen's Cathedral is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Vienna and the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, OP...

 simply followed the regulations of the day.

Notable interments

It includes the graves of

• Anna Gottlieb
  Anna Gottlieb
  Maria Anna Josepha Francisca Gottlieb was an Austrian soprano. She was the first Pamina in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute....
  
  
• Johann Georg Albrechtsberger
  Johann Georg Albrechtsberger
  Johann Georg Albrechtsberger was an Austrian musician who was born at Klosterneuburg, near Vienna.He originally studied music at Melk Abbey and philosophy at a Benedictine seminary in Vienna and became one of the most learned and skillful contrapuntists of his age...
  
  
• Josef Strauss
  Josef Strauss
  Josef Strauss was an Austrian composer.He was born in Vienna, the son of Johann Strauss I and Maria Anna Streim, and brother of Johann Strauss II and Eduard Strauss. His father wanted him to choose a career in the Austrian Habsburg military...
  
  
• Anton Diabelli
  Anton Diabelli
  Anton Diabelli was an Austrian music publisher, editor and composer of Italian descent. Best known in his time as a publisher, he is most familiar today as the composer of the waltz on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his set of thirty-three Diabelli Variations.-Early life:Diabelli was born in...
  
  
• Count Philipp von Cobenzl
• Georg Donner
  Georg Donner
  ----Georg Rafael Donner was one of the most prolific Austrian sculptors of the 18th century. His style was baroque with some pseudo-ancient additions. He educated many German sculptors of his era, including his son Matthäus Donner.His work was inspired by nature and by antique sculpture which was...
  
  
• Alexander Ypsilanti
• Franz Pfeiffer
  Franz Pfeiffer
  Franz Pfeiffer , was a Swiss literary scholar.He was born in Solothurn as a Bürger of Bettlach. After studying at the University of Munich he went to Stuttgart, where in 1846 he became librarian to the royal library. In 1856, Pfeiffer founded the Germanic, a quarterly periodical devoted to German...
  
  
• Baron Ernst von Feuchtersleben
• Louis Montoyer
  Louis Montoyer
  Louis Montoyer was an 18th century Belgian-Austrian architect, principally active in Brussels and Vienna.-Life:...
  
  

Mozart

The most famous is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

. However, 17 years after his death, his widow couldn't find his grave; neither could Vincent Novello

Vincent Novello

Vincent Novello , English musician, son of an Italian who married an English wife, was born in London....

 in 1829. In 1855 a gravestone was erected at what was presumed to be the correct spot. Later the stone was transferred to the group of famous musician graves at Zentralfriedhof

Zentralfriedhof

The Zentralfriedhof is one of the largest cemeteries in the world, largest by number of interred in Europe and most famous cemetery among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries.-Name and location:...

. A cemetery worker replaced it with a memorial tablet, which was again expanded by several contributors. The memorial known today was refurbished by Viennes sculptor Florian Josephu-Drouot in 1950.

After closing

The rest of the cemetery decayed. It was restored, put under historic preservation

Historic preservation

Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...

and opened to the public in 1937.

External links

• Der Wiener Friedhof von St. Marx
• The St. Marx Cemetery is being restored (in German)
• How to get there (Vienna govt. site in German)