Hřbitov Újezd u Černé Hory

Hřbitov Újezd u Černé Hory is a small churchyard cemetery in the village of Újezd u Černé Hory, west of Blansko, home today to roughly 250 residents. The cemetery surrounds the Church of All Saints and forms a single, historically layered complex with it — most visitors encounter it while touring the church itself, though the burial ground has its own history worth knowing.

How old is this cemetery?

Originally, an oval-shaped cemetery surrounded the church — a layout typical of the oldest, medieval churchyard cemeteries in this part of Moravia. A round or oval ring of graves encircling the church was a form inherited from centuries-old tradition, and it accompanied the building for a long stretch of its existence. The Church of All Saints itself was built at the beginning of the 13th century as a Romanesque noble sanctuary, evidenced by the entrance portal on its southern side, still preserved today with its sculptural decoration. The oldest surviving written record connected to the local parish dates from 1308 and mentions a priest named Jakub of Újezd, while the first written mention of the village itself dates from 1334.

What happened to the church and cemetery in 1744?

The site's fortunes changed with a fire in 1744, which destroyed the church, the rectory, and almost the entire village. The church remained in ruins for an extended period before being rebuilt in 1746 — in the Baroque form it retains to this day, while still preserving the original Romanesque portal with its sculptural decoration as a trace of the building's oldest phase. The church is now protected as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic.

When did the cemetery take on its current shape?

The original oval outline of the cemetery did not survive unchanged to the present day. In 1878, the grounds around the church were redesigned, giving the cemetery the layout close to what can be seen today. This 19th-century remodeling reflects a broader trend of tidying up and modernizing rural churchyard cemeteries across Moravia at the time, when many oval medieval layouts were replaced with more regular, geometric arrangements of paths and burial plots.

Why is it worth a visit?

The cemetery at Újezd u Černé Hory is a place where layers of history overlap: a medieval oval plan dating back centuries, the mark left by the great 18th-century fire, and a 19th-century remodeling that gave the cemetery its present appearance. For anyone interested in sacred architecture and local history, it makes a natural companion to a visit to the Church of All Saints — letting visitors read the whole church-and-cemetery complex as a living record of successive eras, from its Romanesque origins through the Baroque rebuilding to its modern-era reorganization.

Frequently asked questions

Can the cemetery be visited together with the church? Yes, the cemetery directly surrounds the Church of All Saints and forms a single complex with it, so visiting both naturally goes together.

What shape did the cemetery originally have? It was originally oval — a layout typical of the oldest medieval churchyard cemeteries in the region.

When did the cemetery take on its current appearance? It was redesigned into its present form in 1878.

What destroyed the original church-and-cemetery complex? A major fire in 1744 that destroyed the church, the rectory, and nearly the entire village; the church was rebuilt in 1746.