Příbram cemeteries

1. HISTORY OF THE CEMETERIES IN PŘÍBRAM

It can be assumed that the Příbram cemetery was located near the Church of St. James from the very beginning. The cemetery, like in other places, was surrounded by a wall, which also served as a defence, as can still be seen, for example, at the church in Pičín or at Stražišti near Březnice.

The miners and metallurgists, mostly of German origin, celebrated mass in the Church of St. John the Evangelist and found their final resting place in the nearby cemetery. The townspeople of Příbram were served by the Church of St. James and the cemetery nearby. Priests and prominent townsmen of Příbram were buried in the crypts of the church. In this context, it is interesting to note, for example, that the tomb of the vladyk of Drahenice near Březnice was also located in the Church of St. James, in which Margaret of Drahenice, sister of the important Czech chronicler and historian Bartosek of Drahenice, was buried in 1433.

The events of 1618 and the subsequent Thirty Years' War left a heavy mark on Příbram. Apart from the hardships of war, the most terrible disasters for the entire population were the outbreaks of epidemic diseases, such as plague, typhus, cholera, and feverish diseases. As early as 1649, a plague struck Příbram, to which several dozen inhabitants succumbed. The year 1680 brought, in addition to various peasant storms, a great plague in the Bohemian Kingdom. The cemetery at the Church of St. James and the hospital cemetery were not sufficient for all the victims and therefore a plague cemetery was established near the execution site, called "u Korejtek", in the so-called Panská louka.

A silent memorial of this disaster is also the Plague Column in Příbram, which was built by the merchant Jan Jakub František Pivec and his wife Dorota in gratitude for their recovery from the plague. The pillar, probably made by the Příbram stonemason and sculptor Matěj Hueber, originally stood between the Church of St. James and the later pharmacy and on its top it bore a statue of St. Roch, the protector against the plague. When the square was rebuilt and paved in 1839, it was moved to the church tower, where it remains today, although the statue of St. Roch has been replaced by a statue of St. James.

2. THE LAST EXECUTION IN PŘÍBRAM

A silent memorial of this disaster is also the Plague Column in Příbram, which was built by the merchant Jan Jakub František Pivec and his wife Dorota in gratitude for their recovery from the plague. The pillar, probably made by the Příbram stonemason and sculptor Matěj Hueber, originally stood between the Church of St. James and the later pharmacy and on its top it bore a statue of St. Roch, the protector against the plague. When the square was rebuilt and paved in 1839, it was moved to the church tower, where it remains today, although the statue of St. Roch has been replaced by a statue of St. James.

The plague came to Příbram again in October 1713. At the beginning of the plague, the Příbram municipality decided that the victims should be buried in a new cemetery in the so-called Panská louka. In 1729, a large crypt was established under the Dean's Church of St. James, where the most prominent Příbram townspeople were buried from 1730 onwards.

In 1765, by the decision of Empress Maria Theresa, the right of throat was taken away from the towns and transferred to the regional governorate. The last executions in Příbram took place on 11 October 1765, when Vavřinec Kubát from Dolní Hbit was beheaded at the execution site "u Korejtek", and on 23 October of the same year, when Jan Slavík, the leader of a band of thieves from the estate of Zbirze, was hanged on the gallows hill above the town. Both executions were carried out by the Prague executioner Karel Madulín. The throat criminals were buried in the place of execution, i.e. in the place where today there is partly a housing estate and partly the so-called Municipal Garden.

At the turn of 1771 and 1772, after the previous famine, the town was struck by a wave of feverish disease to which many inhabitants succumbed. Dionysius Martinec, the chief steward, enforced a ban on burials at the Church of St. James and in the cemetery of St. John the Evangelist. In October 1771, the plague cemetery on Panská louka was reopened and consecrated. In January 1772, three shafts (mass graves) were dug in these places and the town magistrate ordered the cemetery to be enclosed with a canvas fence. However, important townspeople continued to be buried in the crypt in St. James Church. The upper administrator Martinec enforced a ban on the burial of the deceased in this crypt as well and even some of the deceased had to be transferred to the new cemetery despite the initial resistance of the dean of Příbram.

In 1784, the church of St. John the Evangelist, including the local cemetery, was closed down due to dilapidation. Today, the Skalka shopping centre is located approximately where the Church of St. John the Evangelist and the cemetery used to stand.

On 26 January 1786, the first burial took place in the newly opened cemetery on Panská louka. Alžběta Machutová, née Škodová, was buried here, but before her, 6 small children from Příbram and the surrounding area were buried here. As part of the reforms of the ruler Joseph II, burial inside the villages and in church crypts was forbidden and therefore the old cemetery at the Church of St. James was closed for burials from 1786.

3. EMPTY TOMBS UNDER THE MONUMENTS

The efforts to achieve the independence of Březové Hory were also reflected in the efforts to raise the local church of St. Prokop, later building a new church and establishing an independent parish and in connection with that also the establishment of its own cemetery. In 1879, the establishment of a separate parish exposition was allowed, the reconstruction of St. Procopius Church was completed and the Březohorské cemetery was established, which was consecrated together with St. Procopius Church in October 1879. In earlier times, especially during epidemics, burials were also made in the vicinity of St. Procopius Church, especially in the area of the so-called Káš's Cross.

In 1886-1889, a new church of St. Vojtěch was built in Březové Hory according to the design of the Prague architect Münzbergr. The cemetery at Březové Hory was soon insufficient in capacity and was therefore extended to its present form in 1907. In 1936 a church of the Czechoslovak Church was built on Březové Hory according to the project of architect S. Vachata, dedicated to Master Jakoubek of Stříbro. A columbarium was established in the previous building, where urns with the ashes of local parishioners are stored.

On 31 May 1892, a fire broke out at the Marie Mine, the fumes from the burning gradually spread throughout the entire Březohorské ore district. This terrible catastrophe, which claimed 319 victims, was the largest mining disaster in the world at the time. Because of the large number of victims, due to the possible outbreak of an epidemic, mass graves were established in both town cemeteries in agreement between the representatives of the mining directorate and the representatives of the towns of Příbram and Březové Hory, in which most of the dead miners were buried.

In 1893, the C.C. Ministry of Ploughing, based in Vienna, had two chambered tombs built in both town cemeteries for the victims of the accident, where the remains of the deceased miners were to be transferred after the mass graves were abolished. Above them were erected antiquated cast-iron obelisks made of artistic cast iron at the ironworks in Komárová. Both monuments became silent symbols of the mining disaster.

However, the tombs beneath the monuments did not reach their fulfilment. The mass graves of the miners are still preserved in the cemetery in Březohorie and the tomb under the monument is empty. In the cemetery in Příbram, the mass graves were covered with ordinary graves without the remains of the dead miners being transferred to the tomb. However, the tomb under the monument is not empty because 5 miners who died in the Anna mine accident in 1946 were buried in it.

In 1893, the C.K. Ministry of Ploughing had a memorial plaque dedicated to the miners who died during rescue work in the mining disaster planted in St. Vojtech Church. The voluntary fire brigade in Březové Hory, in cooperation with other Březové Hory associations, had the grave of Augustin Žlutický, a mine carpenter who also died during rescue work in the mining disaster, commemorated. In 1997, on the initiative of the Prokop Příbram Association, a monument to the widows and orphans of the victims of the mining disaster was erected in front of the Marie mine. There is also an exhibition dedicated to the mining disaster in the Marie Mine.

4. THE CEMETERY NEXT TO THE LANDFILL

The Příbram cemetery belonged to the St. James Church until the Second World War, when it came under the direct administration of the town. At the end of the 1920s and during the 1930s, the Society of Friends of Burial sought to establish an urn grove at Hvězdička. However, these efforts remained unfulfilled. It was not until the transformation of the town in the 1960s that the town council returned to the original project and in 1965 an urn grove was established above the Pribram cemetery, in a place called "Na Hvězdičce".

In 1978, the Municipal National Committee in Příbram decided to ban burials in the cemeteries of Příbram and Březohorie, including burials in urns. The newly established cemetery in Pichce became the final resting place of the inhabitants of Příbram. The old cemetery in Příbram and Březové Hory was to be closed in 2008.

The undignified location of the cemetery in Pichce near the city dump soon proved to be unsuitable due to the high groundwater level. However, the ban on burial in the old Příbram cemetery, with various exceptions, continued to apply until 1990, when the co-opted city council adopted a new burial code, according to which burial in the ground was allowed in the old Příbram cemetery and the burial of urns was permitted in the Březohorské cemetery.

The last major change took place in 2000, when it was decided to gradually liquidate the cemetery in Pichce and during 2001-2002 graves and tombstones were moved to a newly allocated part of the Pribram cemetery in the place of the so-called Municipal Garden

■Jaroslav Korbel Podbrdský (editorially abbreviated)