St. Rochusfriedhof

St. Rochusfriedhof stands in Gostenhof, Nuremberg, outside the former city walls and away from the historic centre. It served plague victims in 1517 and 1518. City authorities consecrated the cemetery on 21 March 1519, establishing a burial place beyond Nuremberg’s old defensive boundary. The cemetery gained its chapel soon afterwards. The St. Rochus Chapel, built between 1520 and 1521, presents Hans Beheim the Elder’s late Gothic design. That style reflects early sixteenth-century Nuremberg.

Historical gravestones cover the cemetery, with bronze or brass epitaphs mounted on flat stone slabs. Individual designs give each epitaph a distinct presence. Strict rules limited gravestone size, so families used epitaphs to distinguish their buried relatives. Early examples are rectangular sandstone slabs. Later stones display vaulted tops and carved details, recording artistic changes from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. Johann Pachelbel lies here, alongside Peter Vischer the Elder. The Evangelical Lutheran Church continues to care for the cemetery, which remains in continuous use. Wheelchair accessibility is recorded for the site.