Old Cemetery, Historical park near Speyer Railway Station, Germany
The Old Cemetery is a walled park of about 1.5 hectares in Speyer, used as a burial ground from 1502 to 1881 and renamed Adenauerpark in 1967. Its Gothic chapel of Our Lady was built in 1515–1516 and received a sandstone Mount of Olives group in 1520. A labelled tree collection includes a giant sequoia, Japanese pagoda tree, silver lime, fan maple, and bitter nut.
The site began as a burial ground and gradually transformed into a public park over the years. The Gothic chapel dates from the 16th century and stands as a witness to this past today.
The Gothic chapel of Our Lady, built in 1515–1516 and given a sandstone Mount of Olives group in 1520, served as Speyer's only Lutheran church until 1717. In summer it hosts mainly chamber music concerts. The cemetery's name lives on in the Adenauerpark, and the Domkapitularische Friedhof beside the church still buries cathedral chapter members.
The main entrance is on Bahnhofstraße, close to Speyer station; a second entrance is on Hirschgraben, and a third on Wormser Landstraße leads to the cathedral chapter's cemetery. The walled park is regularly open. A small playground with an open lawn lies in the northeast, and a monument to Turnvater Jahn stands in the green strip before the main gate.
The pond was created in 1958, and the park's labelled trees include a giant sequoia, a Japanese pagoda tree, a snake spruce and a bitter orange. The mathematician and astronomer Friedrich Magnus Schwerd (1792–1871) is buried in the adjacent cathedral chapter cemetery.
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