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.

History

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.

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. A second chapel, The Margarethenkapelle (Margaret Chapel), (re-)built in 1491, occupies a site in the center of the cemetery.

Notable burials

Other cemeteries in Salzburg