Mausoleum of Izrael Poznański
Perhaps the largest Jewish tombstone in the world — a domed granite mausoleum lined with two million pieces of Venetian glass, raised over a Łódź cotton king.
At a glance
The mausoleum of Izrael Poznański stands in the New Jewish Cemetery of Łódź, the vast necropolis opened on Bracka Street in 1892. Poznański was one of the three “cotton kings” who built the city; his tomb, raised around 1901–03, is thought to be the largest Jewish tombstone in the world and is the only one decorated with mosaic. A granite dome on eight columns rises over the grave, its inside lined with some two million pieces of Venetian glass. It is widely held to be the most important work of nineteenth-century Jewish funerary architecture, and the single finest monument in Łódź.
Key facts
- Location: New Jewish Cemetery (Bracka Street), Łódź, Poland
- For: Izrael Poznański (1833–1900), one of Łódź’s three “cotton kings”
- Built: probably 1901–1903
- Form: a granite dome on eight columns and four pillars, on a central circular plan
- Decoration: a Venetian glass mosaic of some two million pieces — the only Jewish tombstone with one
- Setting: the cemetery (opened 1892, c. 44 ha), shaped by the architect Adolf Zeligson
History
The Jews of Łódź built much of the industrial city, and in 1892 the community opened a new cemetery on Bracka Street — at around forty-four hectares, one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in the world. The architect Adolf Zeligson laid out its main structures in the 1890s, including the funeral home of 1896.
When Izrael Poznański died in 1900, his family raised over him a monument to match the palace he had built in life. Erected around 1901–03, the mausoleum takes the form of a central, domed chamber: eight granite columns and four pillars carry the dome, beneath which lies the grave. Its inside is unlike any other Jewish tomb — lined with a mosaic of roughly two million pieces of Venetian glass, supplied by the Salviati workshop and set by the Odorico firm, in symbolic and religious motifs. It is, by common account, the largest Jewish tombstone anywhere, and the only one so decorated.
The cemetery around it carries a heavier history. During the Second World War it bordered the Litzmannstadt Ghetto, and its “Ghetto Field” holds tens of thousands of graves of those who died there. The Poznański mausoleum, a monument to the city’s nineteenth-century confidence, now stands within a landscape that also records its destruction.
What you see
The mausoleum rises above the cemetery avenues as a domed temple of grey granite, austere on the outside. The surprise is within: the underside of the dome glows with gold and coloured glass, a mosaic of two million tesserae quite unlike the carved stone of the graves around it — a piece of Venetian craft set down in central Poland.
Around it spreads the cemetery itself, its nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century tombstones ranging from modest stones to other industrialists’ monuments, and, beyond, the field of ghetto graves. It is a place to move through quietly.
Practical information
- The cemetery is open to visitors; check opening times, and note that it is an active place of memory — dress and behave respectfully
- Men are usually asked to cover their heads at the entrance
- Allow 1 to 2 hours for the mausoleum and the cemetery
- Best combined with the Marek Edelman Dialogue Center and the Radegast station memorial
Getting there
The New Jewish Cemetery is on Bracka Street, in the northern part of Łódź, some way from the centre. Trams and buses run nearby; from central Łódź it is a longer ride than the city-centre sights. Łódź lies about 130 km south-west of Warsaw by train.
Nearby
- The Radegast station Holocaust memorial
- The Marek Edelman Dialogue Center
- The Izrael Poznański Palace and Manufaktura
Sources
- City of Łódź — “Monument of History” guide
- Marek Edelman Dialogue Center, Łódź
- Virtual Shtetl (POLIN Museum)
- Academic studies of the Poznański mausoleum
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