Krasnik Old Jewish Cemetery
Cemetery Information
Historical overview
The second cemetery in Kraśnik was established in the 1640s or 1650s due to the relocation of the synagogue complex to a new location. The cemetery was located 40 meters away from the synagogue. It was located about 100 meters south-west of the market square, on sloping ground, just outside the town walls. On the north side, it adjoined the town wall, in which there was a gateway to the cemetery. On the other sides, it was fenced with a wall with a brick gateway in the south-east corner. Its final shape was similar to a trapezoid with dimensions of approximately 110 × 90 metres. The cemetery in total comprised approximately 0.6 hectares. The cemetery was closed in the first quarter of the 19th century due to sanitary reasons, as it had already been surrounded by residential houses.
During World War II, it was destroyed. After the war, there was an empty square there, and in the 1970s the square was lowered by about 1 m. A square with planted trees was built there, the area was partially intended as a marketplace and a parking lot and another part was built upon. Currently, there are no traces of the cemetery. At the beginning of the 1980s, during the renovation of Bóżnicza Street, a dozen fragments of limestone and sandstone matzevot from the second cemetery were excavated from the ground. They are stored in the beit midrash building .