Alter Johannisfriedhof

The Alter Johannisfriedhof ("Old St. John's Cemetery") is the oldest burial ground in the city of Leipzig, Germany. It was heavily cleared in 1981 by the then East German regime and is now a park. The burial ground was in existence as early as 1278 on the land of the Johannishospital (St. John's Hospital) in Leipzig, a leper hospital. It was later attached to the Johanniskirche (St. John's Church), built in the 14th century and destroyed in World War II.



When the nave of the Johanniskirche of 1585 was replaced by a larger building in October 1894, the bones of Johann Sebastian Bach were discovered, which had been buried in the graveyard on 31 July 1750. The bones of Bach were placed in 1900 in a vault beneath the altar of the church.