The secrets of the “crazy cemetery” in Prague, the gloomy setting of Amadeus, the film about Mozart

This is one of the most gloomy settings of Amadeus, Milos Forman's film dedicated to the genius of Mozart. It was visited by Margaret Thatcher, and yet the immense “crazy cemetery”, as it is nicknamed in Prague, remains a forgotten place, away from the tourist circuits. Far from the beaten track of the Czech capital and its UNESCO-listed historic center, this necropolis has some 4,200 burials. Founded more than a century ago on the outskirts of the city to accommodate deceased patients from the Bohnice psychiatric hospital, the place sometimes attracts ghost hunters, lovers of scandals and or Satanist rites attracted by its energy magic and the legends and mysteries that surround it. “It’s a different cemetery” from the others, explains Jiri Vitek, volunteer guardian of the place, former firefighter and now deputy mayor of a district of Prague. “It was intended for classic psychiatric patients (schizophrenics, alcoholics), but also people we don't want to meet (arsonists, pedophiles, murderers),” he explains.

The death of Mozart in Amadeus by Milos Forman in 1984, with Tom Hulce, F.Murray Abraham, Elizabeth Berridge...

The cemetery was opened and consecrated in September 1909. “Two days later, an eleven-year-old boy, who died of tuberculosis, became the first patient buried here,” comments Alzbeta Remrova, spokesperson for the Bohnice hospital . At the time, the hospital resembled a village with a church, a laundry and a bakery. It was the largest of its kind in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. “The patients worked in the fields, grew vegetables and worked in workshops,” explains Alzbeta Remrova. The cemetery was also open to hospital staff who wished to be buried free of charge.

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When the First World War broke out, Austrian soldiers hospitalized for mental illness and psychiatric patients from Italy, evacuated to Prague, were buried there. Most of them died during a typhoid epidemic between 1916 and 1918, says Jiri Vitek. The cemetery was closed in 1951, then looted and neglected for six decades, with the local chapel almost disappearing under ivy.

This unique place steeped in history(s) was chosen by the American director of Czech origin Milos Forman to film the burial of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in his film “Amadeus” (1984), shot partly in Prague and awarded by eight Oscars.

Jiri Vitek also remembers that British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited the cemetery in 1990 to bring home the remains of a British pilot shot down at the end of World War II. No one knew which tomb it was, except for a local wanderer who identified it in exchange for a case of rum, adds Jiri Vitek. But most of the time, the cemetery served as a test of courage for the young people of the region, especially the southwestern part reserved for criminals. Evoking a negative energy in this place, some believe that it is colder there than elsewhere in the cemetery. “Non-believers were not buried in coffins but in bags, and sanitized with lime. And it’s the hardened lime that generates the cold,” he assures. In the 1980s, police discovered a satanic ritual in the cemetery. More pragmatic Czechs used the place as a dumping ground, and that's how Jiri Vitek discovered it in 2011, while walking his dog along his wall. “It was filled with old refrigerators, washing machines, sofas and debris. So I started cleaning it,” he explains. He has gradually led tours of the cemetery, is working on a book and plans to renovate the local chapel and memorial. “As a firefighter, I saved people for fifteen years. For twelve years, I have been saving the dead,” he concluded with a touch of irony in his voice.