Sudervės Road 28
Vilnius
Vilnius City Municipality
Vilnius Lithuania
|
|
Cemetery notes and/or description:
(Source: JOWBR)-
The "old" Jewish cemetery (called `Shnipishok,' or Piramont) was north of the Jewish ghetto of Vilna and just north of the Vilia (or Neris) River. Generally thought to have been in use from 1487, it served as the main Jewish cemetery of Vilna until 1830. It had long since run out of burial space, and as practiced elsewhere in Europe parts of the cemetery were overlaid with extra layers of earth in order to accommodate the dead.
There are/were two other cemeteries in Vilna: the Zaretcha cemetery which from 1831 until 1943 served as Vilna's main Jewish cemetery. With over 70,000 graves in place, just prior to the Second World War, it too ran out of space.In 1948-1950, during the construction of a stadium and a swimming pool, this cemetery was destroyed.
The Jewish community then acquired a new cemetery, called the "Dembovka," but now known as the Saltonishkiu Cemetery. Inaugurated as a Jewish cemetery in the early 1940s, it is where the remains of the Vilna Gaon rest today.
|
|
|
|
