Žilina Gallery :: Fotogaléria mesta Žiliny

Pamätník Chatama Sofera – זיכרון החת"ם סופר – Chatam Sofer Memorial

Chatam Sofer * Pamätník * Hroby – החת"ם סופר * זיכרון * גרייבס – Chatam Sofer * Memorial * Graves
(Foto: 9. 9. 2014)

The origin of this famous cemetery dates back to the 17th century, when Jews were allowed to settle below Bratislava’s castle on the estate of the Pálffy counts. The cemetery served as the burial place of the Bratislava Jewish community until 1847. Since then, the Jewish community has used the Orthodox and Neolog cemetery located on Zizkova Street nearby. The Old Cemetery was well maintained until 1942-1943, when it was demolished during construction of a tunnel. Most of the graves were exhumed and reburied at the Orthodox cemetery in a communal grave behind the beit tahara. Only the most precious section, where famous Bratislava rabbis were buried – 23 graves surrounding the Chatam Sofer’s tomb – was preserved on the original site.
It was enclosed by a concrete shell and covered with a concrete roof. The site became an underground compound, which some people in Bratislava began calling the Chatam Sofer Mausoleum. Even throughout the Communist period it was visited by Orthodox pilgrims and other Jews. For Bratislava residents, the site evoked a mysterious Jewish presence in a period when Jewish heritage was not valued by the authorities and two Bratislava synagogues and the entire old Jewish neighborhood were razed. In 1982, the tramline was built and a tram stop was established over the compound.
In 2000-2002, after decades of neglect, the whole site was redeveloped and the gravestones were restored. The redevelopment project was initiated by the New York-based International Committee for the Preservation of Gravesites of Gaonai Pressburg, an organization headed by Mr. Romi Cohn that included prominent Orthodox authorities. The project would not have been possible without the cooperation and support of the Bratislava Municipality and Mayor Jozef Moravcik. The project was coordinated by Dr. Peter Salner, the president of the Bratislava Jewish Community, which owns the site, and the building works were supervised by Mr. Gershon Turm from Israel.

Source: Text prevzatý z web stránky Chatam Sofer Memorial (kliknite): www.chatamsofer.sk.