The Old Cemetery is 0.75 hectares in size and is located on the Schlossberg, close to the path to Wartburg Castle. It was laid out in 1599 by Duke Johann Ernst as a churchyard outside the city wall to the west of the Preacher's Gate. The construction of the mortuary in 1829 by the architect and Chief Building Director of the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Clemens Wenzeslaus Coudray, a friend of Goethe, made the Old Cemetery in Eisenach very famous. At the time, the building was the most modern mortuary in Germany. However, it had to be demolished in 1978 due to dilapidation. Numerous members of the Bach family are buried in the cemetery, including the parents of Johann Sebastian Bach.