Žale Central Cemetery ( sl, Centralno pokopališče Žale), often simply Žale, is the largest and the central

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

and

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. It is located in the

Bežigrad District The Bežigrad District ( sl, Četrtna skupnost Bežigrad), or simply Bežigrad (), is a district () of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It encompasses the northern part of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, between the southern rail line to th ...

and operated by the Žale Public Company.

History

The cemetery was built in 1906 behind Holy Cross Church. The first burial was performed in the same year on May 3, when the priest Martin Malenšek was transferred there from the old

Navje Navje Memorial Park ( sl, Spominski park Navje), the redesigned part of the former St. Christopher's Cemetery (), is a memorial park in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It is located in the Bežigrad district, just behind the Ljubljana railway ...

cemetery. During World War I, many of the fallen soldiers of all sides were buried in Žale. However, they were all

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, while

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...

were buried in Navje. In 1923 the authorities allowed Jews and Muslims to be buried in Žale too, but only on the exterior side of the cemetery wall. In 1931 the new part of the cemetery (B part) opened. The Italian military cemetery was arranged there and many Italian soldiers were reburied from the A part. At the same year the Jewish part of the cemetery was arranged too, however it was separated from the main part by a fence. In 1939 the

Ossuary An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the ...

of World War I Victims was built by architect

Edvard Ravnikar Edvard Ravnikar (4 December 1907 – 23 August 1993) was a Slovenian architect. Ravnikar was born in Novo Mesto and was a student of architect Jože Plečnik. Later, he led the new generation of Slovene architects, notable for developing t ...

, where 5,258 of the victims of this war as well as of the associated conflicts were later buried. With the growth of

the need for graves was growing too. In the 1930s the cemetery was proclaimed the central cemetery of Ljubljana and the planning of its expansion began. As the plans of the architect

Ivo Spinčič Ivo is a masculine given name, in use in various European languages. The name used in western European languages originates as a Normannic name recorded since the High Middle Ages, and the French name Yves is a variant of it. The unrelated So ...

failed to please the authorities, in 1936 a new design was commissioned from the architect

Jože Plečnik Jože Plečnik () (23 January 1872 – 7 January 1957) was a Slovene architect who had a major impact on the modern architecture of Vienna, Prague and of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, most notably by designing the iconic Triple Bridge and ...

. The new part, named Plečnik Žale Cemetery, was completed in 1942. It is a special architecture with monumental entrance with big arch, with different small chapels and some additional buildings. Until 1968, only coffin burials were performed in Žale, but in that year the Žale Crematorium was built and the urn burials became available too. In 1974 with the construction of the C part, the cemetery expanded again. The C part was designed by the architect Peter Kerševan. In 1988 the D part (''Nove Žale'', New Žale) designed by

Marko Mušič Marko Marijan Mušič (born 30 January 1941) is a Slovenian architect. He has designed buildings in cities such as Zagreb, Skopje and Ljubljana. Since May 2008 he has been a vice-president of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SAZU). W ...

opened. As of 2008 the cemetery measures 375,000 m² and comprises sections A, B, and C east of Tomačevo Street ( sl, Tomačevska cesta), and section D west of the road. The fifth part of the cemetery, the Plečnik Žale, is not used for burials but for pre-burial ceremonies and associated cemetery activities. More than 150,000 people have been buried at Žale, about 2,000 of them prominent. The whole area of Žale has been proclaimed a cultural monument of Slovenia.

Notable people

About 2,000 prominent people are buried in the Žale cemetery, including: *

Fran Albreht Fran Albreht (17 November 1889 – 11 February 1963) was a Slovenian poet, editor, politician and partisan. He also published under the pseudonym Rusmir. He was born as Franc Albrecht in the Upper Carniolan town of Kamnik in what was then the Aus ...

, author, editor and politician * Vera Albreht, poet *

Vladimir Bartol Vladimir Bartol (24 February 1903 – 12 September 1967) was a writer from the Slovene minority in Italy. He is best known for his 1938 novel '' Alamut'', the most popular work of Slovene literature around the world, which has been translated int ...

, writer *

Katja Boh Katja Boh (1929–2008) was a Slovenian sociologist, diplomat and politician. Early life and career She was born in a wealthy middle class family in Ljubljana, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now the capital of Slovenia). Her father was an Austrian Jew ...

, sociologist, politician and diplomat *

Ivan Cankar Ivan Cankar (, ) (10 May 1876 – 11 December 1918) was a Slovene writer, playwright, essayist, poet, and political activist. Together with Oton Župančič, Dragotin Kette, and Josip Murn, he is considered as the beginner of modernism in Slo ...

, author and political activist *

Fran Saleški Finžgar Fran Saleški Finžgar (February 9, 1871 – June 2, 1962) was perhaps the most popular Slovene folk writer. He is particularly known for his novels and short stories, although he also wrote poems and plays. Life Fran Saleški Finžgar was born ...

, writer and priest *

Rihard Jakopič Rihard Jakopič (12 April 1869 – 21 April 1943) was a Slovene painter. He was the leading Slovene Impressionist painter, patron of arts and theoretician. Together with Matej Sternen, Matija Jama and Ivan Grohar, he is considered the pio ...

, painter *

Davorin Jenko Davorin Jenko (born Martin Jenko; 9 November 1835 – 25 November 1914) was a Slovene composer. He is sometimes considered the father of Slovenian national Romantic music. Among other songs, he composed the melody for the Serbian national anthem " ...

, composer, author of the music for the

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European n ...

Edvard Kardelj Edvard Kardelj (; 27 January 1910 – 10 February 1979), also known by the pseudonyms Bevc, Sperans and Krištof, was a Yugoslav politician and economist. He was one of the leading members of the Communist Party of Slovenia before World War II ...

, Communist leader * Dragotin Kette, poet *

Edvard Kocbek Edvard Kocbek () (27 September 1904 – 3 November 1981) was a Slovenian poet, writer, essayist, translator, member of Christian Socialists in the Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation and Slovene Partisans. He is considered one of the best au ...

, poet, essayist and politician *

Milan Komar Milan Komar, also known as Emilio Komar (4 June 1921 – 20 January 2006) was a Slovene Argentine Catholic philosopher and essayist. Life He was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, to a Slovene f ...

, philosopher *

Janez Evangelist Krek Janez Evangelist Krek (27 November 1865 – 8 October 1917) was a Slovene Christian Socialist politician, priest, journalist, and author. Life and career He was born and baptized ''Johann Krek'' in a peasant family in the village of Sveti Greg ...

, politician *

Dragotin Lončar Dragotin Lončar (November 5, 1876 – July 29, 1954) was a Slovenian historian, editor, and Social Democratic politician. He was born in Selo near Lukovica pri Domžalah in Upper Carniola and baptized Carl Lonzhar. After graduating from the ...

, author, politician, historian *

Janez Menart Janez Menart () (29 September 1929 – 22 January 2004) was a Slovene poet, best known for his Intimist poetry. He translated a number of classic French and English poetry and drama works into Slovene, including Shakespeare' ...

, poet *

Josip Murn Aleksandrov Josip Murn, also known under the pseudonym Aleksandrov (4 March 1879 – 18 June 1901) was a Slovene language, Slovene Symbolism (arts), symbolist poet. Together with Ivan Cankar, Oton Župančič, and Dragotin Kette, he was regarded as one o ...

, poet *

Lili Novy Lili Novy née Haumeder (24 December 1885 – 7 March 1958) was a Slovene poet and translator of poetry. She is considered the first Slovene female lyric poet as well as one of the most important Slovene female poets in general. Biography She wa ...

, poet * Anton Peterlin, physicist * Leonid Pitamic, jurist *

, architect *

Rudi Šeligo Rudi Šeligo (14 May 1935 – 22 January 2004) was a Slovenian writer, playwright, essayist and politician. Together with Lojze Kovačič and Drago Jančar, he is considered one of the foremost Slovenian modernist writers of the post-World War ...

, writer, politician and playwright *

Dominik Smole Dominik Smole (24 August 1929 – 29 July 1992) was a Slovenian writer and playwright. Biography Smole was born in Ljubljana in what was then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He attended school in Ljubljana and after the end of World War II he was emp ...

, writer and playwright *

Matej Sternen Matej Sternen (20 September 1870 – 28 June 1949) was a leading Slovene Impressionist painter. Sternen was born in Verd, now part of the Carniolan municipality of Vrhnika, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and baptized ''Matthæus Str ...

, painter *

Gregor Strniša Gregor Strniša (18 November 1930 – 23 January 1987) was a Slovenian poet, playwright, and songwriter. He is considered one of the most important Slovene-language poet of the second half of the 20th century. He spent most of his life away from ...

, poet *

Jernej Šugman Jernej Šugman (23 December 1968 – 10 December 2017) was a prominent Slovenian theater, television and film actor. Biography Šugman was born in Ljubljana, the son of actors Zlatko and Maja Šugman. Between 1988 and 1992, he studied acting a ...

, actor *

Josip Vidmar Josip Vidmar (October 14, 1895 – April 11, 1992) was a notable Slovenian literary critic, essayist, and politician. From 1944 to 1946 he was speaker of the Slovenian People's Liberation Council (Slovenian Parliament). From 1952 to 1976 was pre ...

, literary critic *

Milan Vidmar Milan Vidmar (22 June 1885 – 9 October 1962) was a Slovenian electrical engineer, chess player, Chess theory, chess theorist, and writer. He was among the top dozen chess players in the world from 1910 to 1930 and in 1950, was among the inaugu ...

, electrical engineer, chess player and theorist *

Angela Vode Angela Vode (; 5 January 1892 – 5 May 1985) was a Slovenian pedagogue, Feminism, feminist author and human rights activist. An early member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, she was expelled from the Party in 1939 because of criticism agains ...

, politician, author, feminist activist *

Gregor Žerjav Gregor Žerjav, sometimes spelled Žerjal (14 November 1882 – 27 June 1929), was a Slovene and Yugoslav lawyer and liberal politician. Together with Albert Kramer, he was the leader of the Slovenian liberals in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croat ...

, politician * Vitomil Zupan, writer *

Oton Župančič Oton Župančič (January 23, 1878 – June 11, 1949, pseudonym ''Gojko'') was a Slovene poet, translator, and playwright. He is regarded, alongside Ivan Cankar, Dragotin Kette and Josip Murn, as the beginner of modernism in Slovene literature. ...

, poet

External links

The Garden of All Saints
3D visualisation of Plečnik Žale by Boštjan Burger.
360° views of Žale on Plečnik.net

Architecture of Žale

Search engine for graves in Žale
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zale Buildings and structures in Ljubljana Cemeteries in Slovenia Religion in Ljubljana Tourist attractions in Ljubljana Bežigrad District Jože Plečnik buildings