Tree felling work on the cathedral cemetery completed

"The cathedral cemetery is open to the public again. I am very pleased that the necessary tree felling work could be carried out quickly and that the cemetery no longer has to remain closed for safety reasons", explains Dr. Holger Kunde, director of Vereinigte Domstifter. At the beginning of July, the dean of Vereinigte Domstifter, Prof. Dr Karin von Welck, and the director of the foundation decided to temporarily close the cemetery to the public after an inspection of the cathedral cemetery. Last summer's drought had caused severe drought damage to the trees in the cathedral cemetery. Many trees had dried out and were no longer stable, and there was a risk that large branches would fall down or even cause trees to fall over. Furthermore, some trees were affected by the sooty bark disease. These were also felled. They will soon be replaced by new plantings after consultation with the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology.

So the cathedral cemetery is again open to the public from April to September from 9 am until 8 pm and from October to November from 9 am until 6 pm.

Background Information

Since 2014, the cathedral graveyard which is maintained by the Vereinigte Domstifter has been open to the public again as a space for peace and reflection, and since 2016 has been used again as a final resting place.

The cathedral cemetery was built in the mid-16th century. At first it was probably intended for the deceased of the church parish of St. Mary of the Cathedral Immunity, who until then had been buried around the Church of St. Mary (especially in the area of today's Cathedral Cloister, where hundreds of graves have been discovered over the centuries). But already at the end of the 16th century, the first high dignitaries of the Cathedral chapter, who had the right to be buried in the Cathedral Church before and also long after, can be found in the cemetery. Until the 20th century, Naumburg canons and certain higher administrative staff (including the cathedral preachers) had the right to a burial place.

With the opening of the new municipal cemetery in Weißenfelser Straße in 1901, the importance of the cathedral cemetery slowly decreased. But even after that, prominent personalities (e.g. cathedral deans) were buried in the cathedral cemetery. The last burial, before it was reopened as a final resting place in 2016, took place in the 50s or 60s.