The place found me

The cemetery was only a set at first.

My name is Jiří Vítek And I'm a native of the Goddesses. I grew up here, went to school in the Constitutional Street and around the psychiatric hospital, the Chimiki grove and the old constitutional cemetery was a natural part of my childhood.

When I was a kid, I didn't see the cemetery as a historical monument. It was a strange piece of landscape on the outskirts of Bohnice, a place with reputation, silence and a bit of a cold atmosphere. The hills of old tombs were turned into bunkers during children's games and later the cemetery area became one of the stages of growing up.

He's been called different nicknames among the locals for years. Few people knew the real reason for his existence. The cemetery lost not only its physical form, but gradually its name and story.

First I was saving the living

For nearly 15 years, I worked as a professional firefighter. You get used to it in a job like this, sometimes you have to go where everyone else is going. That it makes sense to save something even when the situation is bad and the outcome is not certain.

Of course, at that time I had no idea that this experience would affect my relationship with the cemetery. Later I put it simply for myself: for years, I helped save the living, and then it was time to try to save the memory of the dead.

One day, you could really look at it.

After many years, I returned to the cemetery. If you know a place since you were a kid, you can walk around it a hundred times and not actually see it. Then comes one day when he looks at it differently.

The state of the cemetery was desperate. It was covered with racewood, among the remains of the graves lay waste, old appliances, building materials and debris. The chapel the vandals set fire to in 1989 was without a roof. Burned beams lay inside and the whole space acted as a place that was simply forgotten.

In 2013 I started cleaning up. There was no big plan, no project, no budget. It was just a shovel, a wheel, hands, and the feeling that a place like this couldn't look like that.

Refrigerator, rubble, bushes and ivy

During the first year, the cemetery was removed more than 30 tonnes of waste. Later summaries of the entire voluntary renewal show around 35 to 40 tonnes. It wasn't just garbage bags. Old refrigerators, construction rubble, pieces of material and other things that never belonged to the cemetery.

More volunteers gradually joined. We removed the flight logs, paved the roads and cleaned out the burnt remains of the fallen roof of the chapel. At the same time, we didn't want to "clean" the cemetery perfectly enough to lose his face.

That's why he stayed ivy. They belong to this place as well as old walls, trees and silence. The goal was never to create a sterile park. The goal was to restore dignity to the place while maintaining its unmistakable character.

Then visitors started coming.

With cleaning came the next question: who is in the cemetery? From local rumors and scary stories, the real story of patients, staff of the Institute, nurses, nurses, workers, officials and people brought to Bohnice by the First World War began to emerge.

I started throwing guided tours. They weren't about being haunted. It was about history, human destinies, and that there could be a specific person behind every anonymous location. According to Prague 8 data, my inspections have been carried out by 2021 more than 5,600 visitors.

The cemetery slowly returned to the knowledge of Bohnice and the whole Prague. From a place where they used to go as a test of courage, it became the place of memory again.

The Italian trail got specific names.

One of the most powerful stories of the cemetery is its connection to the First World War. During the war, patients from the areas of the then monarchy, including Trident, were also moved to the Bohnice Institute and the fates of Italian nationality appear in the cemetery.

In 2018 I was able to help the Italian Ministry of Defence identify as part of my research work 48 persons of Italian nationalitywhich found the last resting place in the Bohlice cemetery.

It's moments like this that remind you that working in a cemetery isn't just cleaning branches and waste. It's also composing the memory back from individual names, data and documents.

Cleaning wasn't enough. The cemetery needed certainty.

In time, it was clear that the brigade itself would not save the cemetery in the long run. The chapel was in a state of emergency, the walls were aging and property conditions complicated every major repair.

Since 2015 I therefore encouraged the cemetery to get into the administration of Prague 8. I was afraid that someday, as useless state property, it would end up in a situation where someone who had no relationship with the place would decide his future.

The negotiations took years. The cemetery belonged to the state, passed through the Ministry of Health and the Office for the Representation of the State in Property matters. Prague 8 has made an official effort to entrust it, and after a few years the transfer was approved.

Only then did it give rise to a real possibility of planning long-term renewal, investing in buildings and returning the cemetery's future, not just maintaining its past.

Gateway, study and thorn crown

In 2023 has undergone a complete repair of the entrance gate and goal. After many years, a cross that had been stolen in the past returned to the main gate.

An architectural study of the revitalization of the cemetery followed. Its principle is consistent with what I have been trying to do since the first day: maintain Genius loci and not turn the cemetery into a shiny attraction.

The strongest motif of the chapel design was an open construction made of cortenic steel resembling thorn crown. Rez, pain, extinction - and hope at the same time. Exactly the contradiction that I think depicts the whole story of the cemetery.

After decades, it's not just a promise anymore.

At the turn of 2025 and 2026, a real one started. reconstruction of the cemetery chapel. After decades, the construction that remained a torsion since the fire in 1989 has finally experienced an intervention to prevent its demise and give it a new, sensitive form.

According to current information, the Bohnice Cemetery reconstruction in September 2026 is still under way. The cemetery is still open to the public outside the immediate area of the construction site.

But that's not the end of the road. Revitalization also provides for renewal of mounds, crosses, parts of historical paths, cemetery walls and other interventions to respect the original form and atmosphere of the complex.

It's not "the cemetery of fools." It's people.

The Bohnice Cemetery is often represented as a mysterious place, a scary attraction or space with alleged negative energy. All this may attract attention, but it's no reason to save the cemetery.

The reason is people. More than 4,000 human destinies. Patients. Sisters. The nurses. Employees. Soldiers. People from different countries, families and life stories.

• The cemetery is meant to remain a piety, not an attraction.
• Restoration is intended to preserve its historical character and atmosphere.
• Real stories are meant to take precedence over sensation and myth.
• Chapel, mound, roads and wall are to form one whole again.
• The cemetery is supposed to be a place where the past doesn't get lost under ivy.

Updated · October 2026

The chapel is complete. Restoration continues.

The first big phase of revitalization brought the restoration of the cemetery chapel. The public was introduced on 1 October 2026. The open construction of cortenic steel resembles a crown of thorns and connects historical masonry with contemporary architecture.

Other projects include mound, cross, historical paths, greenery and cemetery walls.

Source: Prague 8 district — chapel restoration