Jewish Cemetery, Jewish cemetery in Worms, Germany
The Jewish Cemetery in Worms, known as Heiliger Sand, covers an approximately triangular area of about 1.6 hectares. Its older section holds around 1,300 tombstones, while the newer section, on the wall of the former city fortifications acquired after 1689, contains more than 1,200. The oldest legible tombstone dates from 1058/59.
The cemetery was founded in the early 1000s and is one of Europe's oldest Jewish burial sites. The oldest legible tombstone dates to 1058, showing that this place has been in use for over 900 years.
The gravestones bear inscriptions in multiple languages and Hebrew symbols that show how Jewish burial customs changed across the centuries. Visitors can read from the stones what importance family and religious practices held for the community.
The cemetery is closed on Saturdays, Jewish holidays, and during religious ceremonies. Male visitors should wear head coverings, and it is best to check local visitor guidelines in advance.
The funeral route ran around half the city, from the north-east corner where the Jewish quarter lay, around the inner wall to the south-west. Since the late Middle Ages the Dalberg family had the right and duty to escort these processions; the community paid 80 Malter of grain at the end of the 15th century.
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