Čekanice Cemetery in Tábor

Čekanice Cemetery is an interdenominational municipal burial ground in the Čekanice district of Tábor, established in 1921–1922 and still in use today. It lies along the road toward Jeníčkova Lhota, close to the Jordán reservoir, pairing modest interwar brick architecture with a dense record of the local community carved into hundreds of gravestones.

Why did Čekanice build its own cemetery?

Until 1921, residents of Čekanice were buried at Tábor's old St. James cemetery, under the Tábor parish. When that site closed and burials moved to a new municipal cemetery near the Čápov farmstead — widely disliked for being distant and damp — neighbouring villages responded by building their own cemeteries, Horky and Čelkovice among the first. On 16 May 1921 the Čekanice village council unanimously approved building a cemetery to serve Čekanice, Záluží and Hlinice, a decision confirmed at a public meeting and again in summer 1922.

How was the site chosen, and who built it?

In summer 1921 a commission inspected three candidate plots. The one eventually chosen belonged to Josef and Viktorie Želivský, along the road toward Zavadilka; the couple exchanged it for other municipal land, negotiating the free right to a family plot along the north wall. Construction, that same summer, went to Tábor builder Ludvík Stolina, who raised the enclosing wall and a chapel housing a mortuary, an autopsy room and a small tool store. The west wall was an open screen of ornamental concrete blocks; the other three sides were solid rendered brick from local brickworks. A well dug in the north section reached 18 metres, later deepened to 30 metres in 1935 because it never yielded enough water. Stolina designed the 10-by-16-metre chapel himself; carpenter Václav Pícha built the altar, and a 99-kilogram bell, funded by public collection, hung in the tower. Stolina laid out the grounds for 772 grave spaces.

When did the cemetery formally open?

Several burials took place even before building approval, the first on 20 August 1922. Approval followed on 20 October 1922, with the sanitary inspector praising the careful construction and the pace of the work. The cemetery was handed over to the public on Sunday, 22 October 1922: a morning procession set out from the school, Mass was held in the chapel, and the mayor of Čekanice then declared it open. Further afternoon services — Czechoslovak Hussite and Evangelical Reformed — reflected the community's mixed religious makeup.

How was construction financed?

The total cost exceeded 143,000 Czechoslovak crowns, above the original estimate, driven up by a thicker boundary wall, a costlier well, and a lightning-protection system. The village spread the cost across residents over a ten-year repayment period — lump sum, instalments, or work on site. The scheme triggered repeated appeals, and in 1924 the regional administrative committee criticised the municipality for never having secured the funding properly. The dispute ran through the 1920s until 1930, when the village refunded a substantial share of what residents had paid or worked off.

How did the cemetery change after the war?

An expansion, carried out largely through volunteer brigade labour, was completed in 1958–1959 on the south side of the original grounds. The one part of the plan never finished was demolishing the wall between the old and new sections — only a passage next to the chapel was cut through, later visible in footage from Ivan Passer's 1965 film "Intimate Lighting." Today the original section holds the main burial ground plus an urn-grave area on the former children's field, while the extended section adds further burial areas and two double-sided columbarium walls, each with twenty niches.

Who is buried here?

Among those interred are several early-20th-century mayors of Čekanice — Antonín Rejlek, Josef Pařízek and Antonín Pudil — along with mill owners, a printing-house and bookshop owner, teachers, railway officials, and translator Josef Rejlek. The cemetery also holds graves of numerous Premonstratensian nuns and memorials to victims of the 1945 air raid on Tábor's railway station. Several headstones carry sculptural work by local craftsmen, including Jan Vítězslav Dušek and Rudolf Kabeš.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was Čekanice Cemetery built? In summer 1922; it formally opened on 22 October 1922.

Who designed and built it? Tábor builder Ludvík Stolina, to his own design.

How many burial plots were originally laid out? 772 grave spaces.

When was the cemetery expanded? In 1958–1959, mostly through volunteer labour.

Does it have a columbarium? Yes, two double-sided walls with twenty niches each.