Cemetery on Ostrowska Street in Szczecin

The cemetery on Ostrowska Street in Szczecin is a former Protestant cemetery on a small hill covering 3.31 ha, in the Żelechowa estate. In 2016 it was converted into a city park with a lapidarium. The cemetery has been listed in the heritage register since 1978.

History of the cemetery

The cemetery was founded in 1912 (according to the heritage register), when the cemetery on Bogumińska Street became full, as a burial place for the inhabitants of the Züllchow commune, today's Żelechowa. It was in use until the end of the Second World War and had its own chapel, water supply and market garden. The funeral chapel in the eastern part did not survive, and the oldest surviving gravestones date from 1920. In the 1970s a municipal cemetery or a park was planned here, but the plans were not carried out.

Monument to the fallen and the park

On the grounds stands the Monument to the Fallen Heroes of the Żelechowa Commune 1914-1918, set up after 1918. It is a Modernist block measuring 285 x 425 x 250 cm, resembling a catafalque, with a German inscription on the front and the names of 244 fallen on the remaining sides. It stands in the middle of a circle planted with Douglas firs. During the revitalisation in 2016 a 19th-century staircase leading to the cemetery was also discovered, and a historic well has survived. In 2017 the lapidarium park was vandalised and about 130 gravestones were destroyed.

Practical information

• Address: Ostrowska 3, Szczecin, Żelechowa estate.
• The site is a city park; access hours are worth checking before a visit.
• This is a burial place from before 1945, so calm behaviour is expected. The larger cemetery of Szczecin is the Szczecin Central Cemetery.