Cemeteries in Gdansk, Krakow, Lublin, Warsaw and Wroclaw
Description
The data is in the form of tables with lists of cemeteries established in the major Polish cities, with information about the date of the cemetery establishment, the date of closing and cemetery decommission, and the current state of the cemetery. For cemeteries in Gdansk and Wroclaw, there is additional information about the area of the cemetery and the current land use.
Files
Steps to reproduce
All existing and defunct cemeteries within the present administrative borders of these cities were analyzed. The source materials regarding cemeteries included books, research articles, maps, and information found online. In total, 387 cemeteries were analyzed. Gdansk and Wroclaw, being were studied further as the cities with the highest number of decommissioned cemeteries, were studied further. The data on the former cemetery plot locations and sizes, which was were essential to for establishing current land use, came from the research described below and the available literature on the subject. Information on the boundaries of decommissioned cemeteries was found on historical maps and compared to the existing conditions. In some cases, the former geodetic divisions of plots are still preserved. If there was no mention of a defunct cemetery site in the literature, its size was determined using interactive geodetic maps on Geoportal, where the plot size information is available. When the present divisions of plots did not correspond to the former cemetery sites, their areas were estimated using measuring tools on digital maps with a satellite background, taking into account the locations of old trees and the proportions of roads and buildings in the area. It is impossible to estimate the size of defunct cemeteries, even though efforts were made to determine them as precisely as possible, and the analyzed data are thus approximate. In the place of decommissioned cemeteries, there are various types of buildings, areas of road, track or pedestrian traffic, and other types of green areas, such as parks, forests, or undeveloped green areas. The current development of the former cemetery sites was determined using satellite images on Google Maps and Geoportal maps. In cases where there were several types of development in a given area, the prevailing one was chosen.