Zvuky Prahy / Sounds of Prague

Spring at the cemetery of the Mental Hospital in Bohnice. Near small village north of Prague was built between 1906 and 1911a large mental hospital hidden out in the fields and in the forrest above the river. The entire area is called Draháň. The graveyard of ​​25.000 m2 is surrounded by a stone wall. Originally just for Catholics, smale area was as dedicated for Protestant patiences. On graves were still the 90ies metal plates with names in shape of eight-pointed stars. There are graves of italian soldiers from WWI, or of patiencs from some north italian mental hospital. In the late 1980s the proximity of a large housing estate attracted vandals, drug addicts, Satanists, and sprayers. The chapel became a dormitory, a lavatory and an injecting room all at once. In less than a decade it crumbled to pieces. Eventually, the cemetery had to be closed to the public. Czech poet T.R. Field dedicate to this place this epigram.