Camposanto is the Italian term for cemetery and translates as "sacred field". Burial sites of this type are characterized by a courtyard-like enclosed design with an archway open to the inside. 

The Camposanto in Buttstädt is the oldest preserved cemetery of its kind in Thuringia. It was used as a burial ground as early as 1537 and in 1591 the complex was extended with the construction of the enclosing walls, the porticoes and the vaulted crypts to the north and east. The entrance portal with its baroque tower structure still characterizes the tranquil place today. In 1861 - a new cemetery was consecrated in Buttstädt - burial activity in the old cemetery came to a standstill. 

The morbid beauty 

The Buttstadt cemetery is in a good state of preservation and is a unique testimony to the burial culture from the 16th to the 19th century in Thuringia. The Italian-style colonnades were very rare in central Germany at the time. To this day, 88 tombs and around 240 fragments, some of which are in great need of restoration, can still be found in the Camposanto. The cemetery impressively represents the burial culture of the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo and Classicism periods. 

The funerary columns, obelisks and neoclassical steles in the archway and on the open-air grounds vie for attention. Scattered across the meadow, under ancient oak trees, are the scattered mossy gravestones, each of a different shape, as if representing the special nature of the deceased. They document the history of the town and in some cases tell entire life stories. Some of the stone colossi are crumbling, individual epitaphs have fine cracks. Weighing tons, they are spread across the entire site and give the place its special aura.