The symbolic cemetery (1525 m above the sea) is situated close to the Popradské pleso (Popradské Mountain-lake) bellow western slopes of Ostrva. It was built as a memorial devoted to people who worked and tragically died in the High Tatras, exceptionally even to some famous people. Tourists visit this place very often.
Currently there are over 160 memorial-boards and 50 hand-carved wooden crosses. Originally all the memorial-boards were scattered all around the High Tatras, more or less at the places of tragedies. Otakar Štáfl (1884 - 1945), an academic artist, was the author of the idea to found a symbolic cemetery. At the same time he, his wife and some friends were the ones who realised it in 1936. It was finished in 1940 and open to public with the following motto: ”As a remembrance to the death and a warning to the alive”.
Today the symbolic cemetery managed by State Forests of TANAP. Because of esthetical as well as spatial reasons the criteria for expanding the cemetery are very strict now. It is closed for tourists from November 1 till June 15 each year.
