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Fig. 8.3
A cemetery as an example of a landscape element in which all the five components of
landscape memory can be identified
Figure 8.3 shows the layout of the cemetery in the villages of Vernerice and
Petrovice (Localities 1 and 2 on the map in Fig. 8.1). The village of Vernerice is
a typical settlement representing the sociocultural and landscape development of
rural areas in the Sudetenland. The oldest tombstones preserved in the cemetery
located on the outskirts of the village date back to the second half of the Nineteenth
century. Thanks to this, the cemetery provides a great opportunity to monitor the
impact of political events (German settlement, World War II, displacement of the
German population etc.) on the development of individual features in the land-
scape. The cemetery is divided into two sections, separated from each other by a
wall. The smaller section is no longer used and only contains the tombstones of
the local German population of the pre-war period. The entrance to this section
is permanently closed, the tombstones and the walls have fallen into disrepair and
the vegetation there is subject to natural succession, interrupted only by occasional
mowing. The other, larger section is still used and serves the current population of
the village. Despite this, it contains not only the tombstones of deceased Czech
villagers but also parts with German tombstones as well, some standing, others
dilapidated or fallen. In terms of landscape memory, this can be interpreted as
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