Located in the Wiedikon district of Zurich, Silhfeld Cemetery covers 28 hectares, being the largest green space in the city. Its first part, with classicist buildings designed by architect Arnold Geiser, was opened in 1877. Between 1888 and 1892, a further construction phase was completed, including the creation of the first crematorium in Switzerland. It was initially planned that the cemetery would become the main non-denominational burial ground in Zurich, but in 1896, due to the growth of the agglomeration, this idea was abandoned. In the following decades, the cemetery was gradually expanded and today comprises more than ten thousand plots and is divided into five sections.

The cemetery is the final resting place of many renowned Poles, including Andrzej Towianski (1799-1878), founder of the controversial movement known as Towianism, and many of the movement's followers - members of the Circle of the Divine Cause. Founded in 1841, by Towiański in France, the movement was the first Polish sect, bringing together prominent individuals - intellectuals and artists working in exile. Towianism preached, among other things, the idea of redeeming the faults of the world through the martyrdom of the Polish nation. Although it had a huge influence on Polish culture in the Romantic era, for years it was surrounded by a "black legend". He was considered "the greatest scandal of the emigration" and a "biographical embarrassment" to researchers of the work of Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki or Seweryn Goszczyński.