History lessons were never my favourite. The content was interesting, but the teaching methods did not always follow suit. But learning about the past is always better in context.

Prague, for all its gorgeous architecture, elegant cafes and cheap beer, is also home to the Old Jewish Cemetery, the oldest existing Jewish cemetery in Europe. It’s located in Josefov, the former ghetto in the Jewish Quarter.

The cemetery was first built in the 15th century – because Jews were not allowed to bury their dead outside their own district. And due to the scarcity of space, bodies ended up being buried on top of each other.

Burials took place until 1787 and there are over 12,000 tombstones – although many more are buried, as many as 100,000 it is thought. About 12 layers of bodies are said to be piled on top of each other, marked by hap–hazardly placed tombstones.

During the Second World War, Nazis carried out their policy to destroy Jewish cemeteries (although they would sometimes use the tombstones for target practice).

However, Hitler who blamed Germany’s WWI defeat on the Jews, gave orders to leave this cemetery intact – as he wanted to build a Jewish museum on its site after his terrible extermination plan had been carried out. It is a tribute to the tenacity of anti–Nazi forces that Hitler’s ‘Exotic Museum of an Extinct Race’ was never realised.

The oldest tombstone belongs to the rabbi, poet and physician Avigdor Karo and dates back to 1439. His presence there is all the more remarkable as he was one of few who survived an Easter pogrom in 1389 when 3,000 Jews (almost Prague’s entire Jewish population) were killed after Catholic priests accused them of desecrating the Host used in the sacrament of Holy Communion.

Surrealist writer Franz Kafka used to frequent the old cemetery for moments of reflection. He himself was buried in the New Jewish Cemetery on the other side of Prague. Sadly, that burial ground is half–empty – the generation of Jews it was built for were instead taken to Nazi concentration camps.

Visiting the Old Jewish Cemetery is a sober moment, but one of Prague’s finest memorials. By all means, go for the cheap beer, atmospheric nightlife and Art Nouveau buildings, but try not to leave without visiting its important past.