Restorers will restore the tomb of the Stiassni business family in Brno

Brno - Restorers will repair the tomb of the Stiassni family at the Jewish cemetery in Brno, with contributions from private donors. The restoration of the gravestone will cost approximately 200,000 crowns, said Zdeněk Musil, chairman of the Friends of Stiassni Villa to reporters today. The entrepreneurial family had a significant villa in Brno, some of its members perished as a result of the Holocaust.

According to experts, the tomb is in fairly good condition considering it is one hundred years old, but it needs restoration. "The gravestone is in relatively good condition, but it will need to be cleaned. The plaque with gilding and gold lettering will be renewed," said Zuzana Hlavicová from the restoration company Pastiglia.

The Brno cemetery has 11,500 graves and 6,500 gravestones. The entire area is protected as a heritage site, but individual graves are not. This, according to cemetery administrator Petr Špunar, should change in the future. Experts from the Jewish community, together with heritage experts, are selecting representative gravestones. The key factors are significant personalities or the construction of graves by renowned architects or stonemasons.

The cemetery, which has been in use since 1852, includes graves of many notable figures - for example, architect Otto Eisler, wool trader Heinrich Gomperz, or textile industrialists Löw-Beer and their relatives Tugendhat. The Stiassni family also belonged to the textile entrepreneurs. Their famous villa was designed by another Jew, Ernst Wiesner, who is also buried in the Brno Jewish cemetery.

According to Taťjana Pelíšková, vice-chairwoman of the Jewish community in Brno, burials at the cemetery are still conducted in a traditional manner with liturgy. About 150 graves are maintained by the families of the deceased, while the rest is financed by the Jewish community. Inside the area, only the Holocaust memorial and 19 late Baroque gravestones, which were brought here from Jewish communities from where Jews were deported to concentration camps, are protected as heritage sites.