It may sound strange to introduce another cemetery as a Vienna spot, but this place is so weird, somehow sad and desperate – yet interesting through its history – that I think it is worth visiting if you have quite a bit time to spend in Vienna (and if you are into these kind of places!).
As this place is on the very very edge of town in an industrial area, it’s quite a challenge to get there (best thing is by car or bicycle if you are in very good shape and you don’t mind rough areas).
The area around Friedhof der Namenlosen is a harbour with high silos, though the cemetery is a bit hidden between bushes and trees and an old stone wall. The older part of the cemetery is opposite the little chapel, here you find graves in the shrubbery among the trees, not far from the shore of the Danube.
This cemetery is a burial site for the nameless dead people who drowned in the Danube and who were washed upon the shore due to a vortex in the river. Between 1840 and 1940 they buried the dead bodies in this area – most of them impossible to recognize, so the names of the poor people who died for whatever reason were not known.
Nowadays only a few visitors still decorate the graves. But once a year – the Sunday after All Saint’s day (01 November)- there is a commemoration, a decorated raft floating down the Danube.
