The Petersfriedhof or St. Peter's Cemetery is – together with the burial site at
Nonnberg Abbey – the oldest cemetery in the
Austrian city of
Salzburg, located at the foot of the
Festungsberg with
Hohensalzburg Castle. It is one of Salzburg's most popular tourist attractions.
Closed in 1878, the site decayed until in 1930 the monks of St. Peter's successfully urged for the admission of new burials.[clarification needed]
History
Catacomb chapel
Its origins date back to about 700, when the adjacent
St. Peter's Abbey (Stift St. Peter) was established by Saint
Rupert of Salzburg. The abbey's cemetery, probably at the site of an even earlier burial place, was first mentioned in an 1139 deed, the oldest tombstone dates to 1288.[citation needed]
Catacombs
Carved into the rock of the Festungsberg are
catacombs that may stem from the Early Christian days of
Severinus of Noricum during the
Migration Period. They include two chapels: The Maximuskapelle and the Gertraudenkapelle, consecrated in 1178 under the Salzburg Archbishop
Conrad of Wittelsbach and dedicated to the assassinated Archbishop
Thomas Becket of Canterbury.[citation needed]
A second chapel, The Margarethenkapelle (Margaret Chapel), (re-)built in 1491, occupies a site in the center of the cemetery.[citation needed]
Notable burials
View to Hohensalzburg CastleGravestone of General Harry J. Collins in SalzburgGrave of
Clemens Holzmeister