Situated in the Wiedikon district of Zurich, Silhfeld Cemetery covers 28 hectares, making it the city’s largest green space. The first section, featuring classical-style buildings designed by the architect Arnold Geiser, was opened in 1877. Between 1888 and 1892, the next phase of construction took place, including the building of Switzerland’s first crematorium. Initially, it was planned that the cemetery would become Zurich’s main non-denominational burial ground, but in 1896, due to the expansion of the metropolitan area, this idea was abandoned. In the following decades, the cemetery was gradually expanded and today comprises over ten thousand plots, divided into five sections.

The cemetery is the final resting place of many distinguished Poles, including Andrzej Towiański (1799–1878), the founder of the controversial movement known as Towianism, and many followers of the movement – members of the Circle of the Divine Cause. The movement, founded in 1841 by Towiański in France, was the first Polish sect to bring together outstanding individuals – intellectuals and artists living in exile. Towianism preached, amongst other things, the idea of the redemption of the world’s sins through the martyrdom of the Polish nation. Although it had an enormous influence on Polish culture during the Romantic era, it was shrouded in ‘dark legend’ for years. It was regarded as ‘the greatest scandal of the émigré community’ and a ‘biographical headache’ for scholars of the works of Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Seweryn Goszczyński.