Municipal Cemetery in Koszalin

The Municipal Cemetery in Koszalin, formerly the New Cemetery, lies in the south-eastern part of the city on Gnieźnieńska Street. It was founded in 1897, when space began to run out at the Old Cemetery. It covers about 36 hectares, and according to the Wikipedia entry more than 50,000 people are buried there.

History of the necropolis

At the turn of the century a Neo-Gothic chapel on a Greek cross plan was built on the cemetery grounds. Because of its peripheral location, residents were at first reluctant to bury their relatives here; nevertheless the city authorities invested in the necropolis and enlarged its area. Around 1920 a monumental gate was erected, hedges and shrubs were planted and the waterlogged ground was drained by drilling eight wells. A small pond was dug in the central part. The importance of the cemetery grew after 1926, when the Old Cemetery was closed to new burials.

After 1945

After Koszalin was taken over by the Polish authorities in 1945, the ground of the whole cemetery was levelled and all gravestones were removed. The greenery and the plantings from the 1920s survived. No monument remained in its place, and some of the stored gravestones were later used to pave roads and to build low walls and benches. In 1945 a plot for fallen Red Army soldiers was set aside by the entrance, where soldiers exhumed from in front of the post office on Zwycięstwa Street were also buried. In 1966 the dead from the liquidated war cemetery on Piaskowa Street were moved here. In the centre of the war plot, the Monument to Brotherhood in Arms was unveiled in 1967, and in 2003 the Monument of Gratitude to the Soviet Army, moved from Victory Square, where it had stood since 1954, was placed next to it. South of the chapel is the Martyrdom Monument.

Lapidarium and the narrow-gauge railway

In the 1990s the cemetery was enlarged by an area beyond the narrow-gauge railway tracks, which is why the tracks of the Koszalin Narrow-Gauge Railway run through the necropolis. During the reconstruction of Zwycięstwa Street, gravestone slabs and their fragments were found that had earlier been used in the city's infrastructure. They were taken to the cemetery and formed into a lapidarium of funerary sculpture, unveiled on 23 May 2002.

Practical information

• Address: Gnieźnieńska Street, Koszalin (south-eastern part of the city).
• It is an active municipal cemetery, which retains the character of a burial place; restraint is expected.
• Opening hours and rules of entry are given by the cemetery manager.