St. Marx Cemetery (Sankt Marxer Friedhof) is a

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 bu ...

in the

Landstraße Landstraße (; Central Bavarian: ''Laundstrossn'') is the 3rd municipal district of Vienna, Austria (german: 3. Bezirk). It is near the center of Vienna and was established in the 19th century. Landstraße is a heavily populated urban area with m ...

district of

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, used from 1784 until 1874. It contains the unmarked grave of the famous composer

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

History

The cemetery was named after a nearby

almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...

whose chapel had been consecrated to St Mark. It opened in 1784 following a decree by Emperor

Joseph II Joseph II (German: Josef Benedikt Anton Michael Adam; English: ''Joseph Benedict Anthony Michael Adam''; 13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 29, 1780 un ...

that forbade further burials in cemeteries within the outer walls of the city of Vienna. He also ordered that bodies should be buried in unmarked graves, without coffins or embalming. This regulation however never came into effect in Vienna, because the government of the city denied its approval because the populace did not want to be reminded of the

mass graves A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of executi ...

of plague times. There were no mass graves in late 18th-century Vienna.Michael Lorenz
Mozart and the Myth of Reusable Coffins
Vienna 2013 Thus the common assumption that Mozart's grave was unmarked because he was too poor is false. His burial in 1791 after a funeral in the Stephansdom simply followed the regulations of the day.

Notable interments

It includes the graves of: *

Johann Georg Albrechtsberger Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (3 February 1736 – 7 March 1809) was an Austrian composer, organist, and music theorist, and one of the teachers of Ludwig van Beethoven. He was a friend of Haydn and Mozart. Biography Albrechtsberger was born at ...

Elias Parish Alvars Elias Parish Alvars (surname sometimes given as Parish-Alvars), (28 February 1808 – 25 January 1849) was an English harpist and composer. He was born as Eli Parish in Teignmouth, Devon; his father was a local organist. His baptismal record at ...

Josepha Barbara Auernhammer Josepha Barbara Auernhammer (25 September 1758 – 30 January 1820) was an Austrian pianist and composer. Biography Auernhammer was born in Vienna, the eleventh of fifteen children born to Johann Michael Auernhammer and Elisabeth (nee Timmer, ...

Count Philipp von Cobenzl Johann Philipp, Graf von Cobenzl (28 May 1741 – 30 August 1810) was a statesman of the Habsburg monarchy and the Austrian Empire. Life Cobenzl was born in Ljubljana, Duchy of Carniola, Carniola, the son of treasurer Count Guidobald von Cobenzl ...

Anton Diabelli Anton (or Antonio) Diabelli (5 September 17818 April 1858) was an Austrian music publisher, editor and composer. 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 ...

* Baron Ernst von Feuchtersleben *

Johann Baptist Gänsbacher Johann Baptist Gänsbacher (8 May 1778 in Sterzing – 13 July 1844 in Vienna), Austrian musical composer, was born in 1778 in Sterzing in the County of Tyrol. His father, a schoolmaster and teacher of music, undertook his son's early education ...

Anna Gottlieb Maria Anna Josepha Francisca Gottlieb (29 April 1774 – 4 February 1856) was an Austrian soprano. She was the first Pamina in Mozart's opera ''The Magic Flute''. She was born in Vienna as one of four sisters. Her parents were actors who worked ...

Josef Madersperger Josef Madersperger (* October 6, 1768 in Kufstein; † October 2, 1850 in Vienna) was a tailor. He is one of the inventors of the sewing machine. Biography Josef Madersperger was born in 1768 in Kufstein. In 1790 his father and he relocated t ...

Louis Montoyer Louis Montoyer (1747, Mariemont, Austrian Netherlands, now Belgium – 5 June 1811, Vienna) was an 18th-century Belgian-Austrian architect, principally active in Brussels and Vienna. Life He worked in Brussels as an architect and building co ...

* Franz Pfeiffer *

Josef Strauss Josef Strauss (20 August 1827 – 22 July 1870) was an Austrian composer. He was born in Mariahilf (now 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 ch ...

Franz Xaver Süssmayr Franz Xaver Süssmayr (German: ''Franz Xaver Süßmayr'', or ''Suessmayr'' in English; 1766 – September 17, 1803) was an Austrian composer and conductor. Popular in his day, he is now known primarily as the composer who completed Wolfgang Ama ...

(unmarked) *

Alexander Ypsilantis Alexandros Ypsilantis ( el, Αλέξανδρος Υψηλάντης, Aléxandros Ypsilántis, ; ro, Alexandru Ipsilanti; russian: Александр Константинович Ипсиланти, Aleksandr Konstantinovich Ipsilanti; 12 Dece ...

Mozart

The most famous person to be buried in the St. Marx Cemetery is

. Later attempts to locate his grave all failed, including a search by his widow, 17 years after Mozart's death, and by

Vincent Novello Vincent Novello (6 September 17819 August 1861), was an English musician and music publisher born in London. He was a chorister and organist, but he is best known for bringing to England many works now considered standards, and with his son he cr ...

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

Zentralfriedhof The Vienna Central Cemetery (german: Wiener Zentralfriedhof) is one of the largest cemeteries in the world by number of interred, and is the most well-known cemetery among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries. The cemetery's name is descriptive of its ...

. At St. Marx Cemetery, a worker replaced the gravestone with a memorial tablet, which was again expanded by several contributors. The memorial known today was refurbished by Viennese sculptor Florian Josephu-Drouot in 1950.

After closing

Over the years, the rest of the cemetery decayed. In the 20th century it was restored, put under

historic preservation Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK), is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...

status, and opened to the public in 1937.

References

External links

Der Wiener Friedhof von St. Marx

(in German)

(Vienna government site in German) * Mozart‘s grave https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2nNvx1ZPNI {{Coord, 48, 10, 58, N, 16, 24, 06, E, region:AT-9_type:landmark, display=title Buildings and structures in Landstraße Cemeteries in Vienna Religion in Vienna