Museum of Cemetery Art (Old Jewish Cemetery), Wroclaw

What to expect

The Old Jewish Cemetery in Wroclaw is an open-air museum: the whole necropolis on ul. Ślężna has been opened to visitors as the Museum of Cemetery Art (Muzeum Sztuki Cmentarnej), and its exhibits are the tombstones themselves.

The sources describe the place from three sides. The museum stresses that it is the only surviving necropolis in Wroclaw from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and dates the first burial to 1856 and the last to 1942. The Polish Wikipedia gives an area of 4.6 ha and about 12 thousand tombstones. The English one points to the cemetery’s eclectic layout, with many architectural forms and styles on a monumental scale.

For the visitor this means two things. The tombstones you pass were made over 86 years, so very different forms stand side by side. And at an average of about 2,600 tombstones per hectare you will not see them all: pick a few alleys and walk slowly.

Visitors rate the place highly: on Google Maps it has 4.6 out of 5 from 858 reviews (read on 25 October 2026).

The cemetery is a branch of the Wroclaw City Museum (Muzeum Miejskie Wrocławia) and you visit it with a ticket, like any museum.

Who it suits: anyone interested in funerary art, architecture and the history of old Wroclaw who prefers a walk among the tombstones to exhibition rooms.

Who should skip it: wheelchair users, because the museum states plainly that the cemetery is not adapted for visitors with mobility disabilities. If you want to learn the city’s history in exhibition rooms, you will do better at the Historical Museum in the Royal Palace , where the exhibition “1000 Years of Wroclaw” brings together more than 3,000 objects from the early Middle Ages to the present day.

How long: allow an hour and a half to two hours. That is what an unhurried walk around the 4.6 ha necropolis takes; if you only want to walk the main alleys, less will do.

Tips

• Start early. The cemetery is open every day of the week, but it closes in the early afternoon (daily: 9:00-16:00). For an unhurried walk around the 4.6 ha, come in the morning rather than just before closing.
• Choose your day. Once a week: free admission on Thursdays. On the other days the price list of 1 October 2026 applies: standard ticket 20 PLN (about 5 EUR), reduced 15 PLN (about 3 EUR).
• Two branches in one day. Other branches of the Wroclaw City Museum have the same free day: the Historical Museum and the Henryk Tomaszewski Theatre Museum in the Royal Palace, and the Archaeological Museum in the City Arsenal. The cemetery in the morning and one of these branches in the afternoon is a good plan for that day.
• A walk with a guide. From May to September, every Sunday, museum guides lead individual visitors around the cemetery. No booking is needed and the walk is included in the entry ticket; the museum’s website gives the start times.
• Family and group tickets. The family ticket is for up to two adults with one to five minors, and the group ticket for groups of more than 20 people. Groups can also book a guided tour in Polish or in a foreign language; the museum’s price list gives the prices.
• Holidays. On the November and December holidays the branches of the Wroclaw City Museum follow a separate opening calendar; before a visit on those days, check the museum’s “Odwiedź nas” (Visit us) page.
• The whole necropolis open again. In an Instagram post of 29 September 2026 the museum apologised for the inconvenience: access to part of the site had been limited in the area of the works under way. From that day the whole necropolis can be visited.

Getting there

• Address: ul. Ślężna 37/39, 50-301 Wrocław.
• Tram: according to the timetable in the open data of Wroclaw City Hall (Urząd Miejski Wrocławia), the nearest stop is “Wiśniowa”, about 281 m from the cemetery in a straight line, and about 329 m away is the “Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny” stop. Trams 9 and 15 stop at both.
• Bus: buses 127 and 136 stop at “Wiśniowa”, and buses 124, 133, 134 and 143 at “Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny”.