Old Jewish cemetery
The Old Jewish cemetery ranks among the oldest and most important sights of that kind in bohemia. It dates back probably to half of 15th century. It served its purpose until 1887 when the New Jewish cemetery was founded in Kolín-Zálabí. A fence wall with pseudo-baroque gate determines an irregular plot of about one hectare. The cemetery area includes more than 2 500 gravestones from 15th-19th century. The oldest preserved gravestones come from 1492, however, late renaissance and early baroque gravestones from 17th century are much more eye-catching.
Approximately in the middle the elevating terrain marks the graves of the most important members of local Jewish community from 16th-19th century. On the north-west foot of this elevation, there is the best-known gravestone of Becalel, the son of Prague Rabbi Jehuda Löw. One of the most popular Kolín legends is connected with his death in 1599.
In the western part of the cemetery (adjacent to Sluneční street) we can find especially newer gravestones from 19th century. The monumental gravestone of the factory owner Josef Weissberger from 1872 belongs to the most significant ones.
